Maria leaves her house and walks north for 6 blocks. she then turns and walks directly east for 8 more blocks
until she reaches natalie's house. what is the shortest distance between maria's house and natalie's house?
draw a diagram !

10 blocks

Step-by-step explanation:

Sorry for the terrible "drawing" below, but it gives you an idea.

A     _      _      _     _     _     _     _    _ N

|                                                        /

|                                             /

|                                   /

|                         /

|             /

|  /

M

Start at point M, Maria's house. Go north (up) 6 blocks to point A. Then go east (right) 8 blocks to point N, Natalie's house.

If you go directly in a straight line from point M to point N (along the path of the slashes), that is the shortest distance between their houses.

The three segments form a right triangle with A being a right angle. Sides AM and AN are the legs of the right triangle. Side MN is the hypotenuse.

The Pythagorean theorem:

(AM)^2 + (AN)^2 = (MN)^2

6^2 + 8^2 = (MN)^2

36 + 64 = (MN)^2

100 = (MN)^2

MN = 10

the shortest distance is 10 blocks long.

answer: f true

step-by-step explanation: