When driving the shortcut, it takes tom 2 minutes to drive each mile, because he has to slow down due to the difficult terrain. it takes him 1.5 minutes for each mile if he doesn’t take the shortcut (round any distances to the nearest tenth, if necessary)

For this, you have to memorize the formula a^2+b^2=c^2.

The bottom side of the box has 8 boxes, so 8 square miles (12 minutes)

The left side has 14 boxes, 14 square miles. (28 minutes)

Using the formula, it goes like this: (8)^2+(14)^2=c^2
Find c:
64+196=c^2
c= 16.124

So the hypotenuse is 16.124 square miles (an exact number), so if you have a calculator, we can now find how many minutes he can drive using the shortcut:

16.124*2= 32.249 = 32.24 minutes.

The correct answer is: b