Question

You start driving north for 55 miles,turn right ,and drive east for another 48 miles.how many miles must you travel to return directly back to your starting point?

Answer 1

73 miles

Explanation:

You drove for two straight lines that are perpendicular to each other. Now you want to go straight back, like the hypotenuse of a right-angle triangle.

Use the Pythagorean theorem.

It's in the format side² + side² = hypotenuse².

We know the two sides at 55 miles and 48 miles.

Substitute what we know:

a² + b² = c²

55² + 48² = c² Simplify

5329 = c² Isolate c by finding the square root of both sides

c = √5329

c = 73 Final answer

Remember the unit is miles.

You need to travel 73 miles to return back to your starting point.