Question

John walks 1 mile west. Then he turns north and walks another 2 miles before he stops to rest. How far is John from his starting point when he stops to rest? Round your answer to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

You might think at first that he is 3 miles from his starting point, but if you think about it, that's not true. This forms a right triangle with one side of 2, the other side with 1, and the unknown distance as the hypotenuse. We can use Pythagorean's Theorem to solve this:

`a^2 + b^2 = c^2`

`c = √(a^2+b^2) = √(2^2+1^2) = √(5)`

This cannot be simplified anymore, so the distance John travels is
`√(5)` miles. You can put this into a calculator to get a value of 2.2 miles (rounding to the nearest tenth).