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4 votes
Phillip is standing across the classroom from

his desk. He walks x steps in a straight line to
his right, turns left at a 90° angle, and then
walks another y steps in a straight line to
arrive at his desk. The shortest path from
Phillip's original position to his desk is d steps.
voud best model the situation above
Which of the following functions would best model the situation above

User Keturn
by
8.1k points

2 Answers

2 votes

Answer:

x^2+y^2=d^

Explanation:

User Discomurray
by
8.3k points
5 votes

The situation can be modeled using the function
d = \sqrt{(x^2 + y^2), where x is the number of steps to the right and y is the number of steps to arrive at the desk.

The situation described can be modeled using a function that calculates the shortest path from Phillip's original position to his desk. Let's break down the steps:

Phillip walks x steps to the right, which can be represented by a positive x value.

Then, he turns left at a 90° angle, which doesn't impact the distance traveled.

Finally, Phillip walks y steps to arrive at his desk, which can be represented by a positive y value.

To find the shortest path, we can use the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the distance, d, as:


d = \sqrt{(x^2 + y^2).

Therefore, the function that best models the situation is
d = \sqrt{(x^2 + y^2).

User James Bucanek
by
7.8k points