Student: "Hey, a shortcut! Let me first just walk around the long way so I can measure the length of the other two sides, multiply those lengths by themselves, add them together, and find out how much extra walking I've saved myself by taking the shortcut. Boy, this shortcut sure is saving me a lot of effort. Hooray Pythagoras!"

[–] mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The hypotnuse is shorter than the other two sides combined. That is the usage here though

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 55 points 10 months ago (1 children)

"the shortest distance between two points is a straight line" is what is being used here. It forming a triangle is incidental.

[–] mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 10 months ago

Ah yes some euclidean space

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