( Need assistance with homework!!!) A piece of drill rod 2 ft 11 inches long is to be cut into pins, each 2 1/2 inches long. (Enter a whole number of pins if you don't mind)

  A)  5 m

Step-by-step explanation:

No ball is shown in the diagram. We assume that the distance of interest is the hypotenuse of a right triangle with legs 3 m and 4 m. Your knowledge of the 3-4-5 Pythagorean triple tells you the hypotenuse is 5 m.

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If you actually need to use the Pythagorean theorem equation, you are looking for "c" where a=4 and b=3:

  c² = a² + b²

  c² = 4² + 3² = 16 +9 = 25

  c = √25 = 5

The straight-line distance is 5 meters.