Question 207268
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line and in this case, it's the diagonal that runs from corner to corner. I'm assuming that the spider is traveling from an upper corner to a bottom corner (or vice versa).



It turns out that the diagonal 'd' can be found by the formula 



{{{a^2+b^2+c^2=d^2}}} where 'a', 'b', and 'c' are the lengths of the box.



Note: this is analogous to the Pythagorean Theorem.




So in this case, a=3, b=1, and c=3 giving us the equation 



{{{3^2+1^2+3^2=d^2}}}



{{{9+1+9=d^2}}} Square each value



{{{19=d^2}}} Combine like terms.



{{{d=sqrt(19)}}} Take the square root of both sides. Note: we're only considering the positive square root.



{{{d=4.359}}} Approximate the square root.



So the shortest distance that the spider can travel from A to B is roughly 4.359 meters.