Question

Sharon and Jacob started at the same place. Jacob walked 3 m north and then 4 m west. Sharon walked 5 m south and 12 m east. How far apart are Jacob and Sharon now?

Answer 1

17.89

Explanation:

Answer 2

The diagram illustrates the problem.
Drawing this on a coordinate plane gives us coordinates for Jacob (-4, 3) and coordinates for Sharon (12, -5).
The distance formula is:

`\sqrt{( x_(2)-x_(1))^(2) +(y_(2)-y_(1))^2 }`
Substituting our values for Jacob and Sharon in we get:

`√((-4-12)^2+(3--5)^2) \\ √((-16)^2 + (3+5)^2) \\ √(256+(8)^2) \\ √(256+64) \\ √(320)=17.89`
They are now 17.89 m apart.