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How do you find the total distance for a round trip?

You just run 4 laps at your favorite track. If your track looks like a big circle with a radius of 200 feet, then what is the total distance that you ran?

Summary

  1. Here's a diagram of our 4 laps around the track
  2. r- radius
  3. ft- feet

Notes

    1. If you took a string and wrapped it around the circle one time, then the length of the string would be the circumference of the circle
    1. π- the famous pi, equal to 3.1415926….
    2. Just use 3.14 if you need an accurate answer, and guesstimate it to be 3 if you are doing a rough calculation in your head
    3. r- the circle's radius
    1. Let's plug in the numbers to find the circumference
    2. ft- feet
    1. The track circumference is 1256 feet
    1. 1 lap is one circumference, 2 laps would be 2 times the circumference, and so the total distance covered is the number of laps times the circumference
    1. We take 4 laps and multiply by the circumference of 1256 ft