Chad is decorating a rectangular ballroom ceiling with decorative lights. Beginning in a corner Chad strings the lights along the length of the ceiling, a distance of 55 feet. Next, Chad strings the lights along the width of the celling, a distance of 48 feet. Then Chad strings the lights straight back to the original corner. At this point, how many feet of lights has Chad used? If necessary, round your answer to the nearest tenth. sulmit

Chad first strings the lights along the length of the ceiling, which totals 55 feet, then he moves along the width for an additional 48 feet. To find how many feet he will use to return back to the original corner, we can visualize this as a right triangle where the length and width are the two legs. Using the Pythagorean theorem: \( c = \sqrt{(55^2 + 48^2)} \). Calculating that gives you a return distance of roughly 69.3 feet. Now, adding them all together: \( 55 + 48 + 69.3 \) equals approximately 172.3 feet of lights used. So, Chad has used a total of about **172.3 feet** of decorative lights.