The Shortcut

The Shortcut

Julie and Doug arrived at Tim’s house very excited. The three friends were going to hear Lisa Byrd sing. Lisa was a famous performer. “ I can’t believe Lisa grew up in our town! ” said Julie. “ Her parents own the Byrd Music School where she is performing, ” said Tim.

“ I can’t believe our parents are letting us go alone! ” said Doug. “ It’s not very far, ” said Tim, rolling his wheelchair to his desk. “ I take piano lessons there every week. ” Tim opened a map on his desk. He followed the streets on the map with his finger. “ You go north on Oak Street, turn east on Elm Drive, then north on Maple Street. ”

“ Here’s a shortcut! ” said Doug. He pointed to a path through the park. “ That’s not a shorter route, ” said Tim. “ The streets are straight. The path in the park is squiggly. ” “ A straight line is the shortest distance between two points, ” said Julie.

Doug looked at both routes on the map. “ I still think it’s shorter to go across the park. ” “ Hmm, ” said Julie. “ The shortest distance across an area is a diagonal. ” She looked unsure. “ Let’s measure the length of each route on the map. ” Tim picked up a ruler. “ I’ll measure the streets, ” he said.

Julie wrote down the lengths of the streets. Then she added them together. “ The street route is ten centimeters. ” “ The map scale shows that each centimeter equals two hundred meters, ” said Tim. “ So it’s two kilometers along the streets. ” Doug tried to measure the park path.