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The Frostburg-Truth bus travels on a straight road from Frostburg Mall to Sojourner Truth Park. The mall is 3 miles west and 2 miles south of the City Center. The park is 4 miles east and 5 miles north of the Center. How far is it from the mall to the park to the nearest tenth of a mile?

User Rpg
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1 Answer

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Express the given locations of the mall and the park through the coordinates of a cartesian plane.

Let the east be +x and west be -x. Let north be +y and south be -y. From the given, the coordinates which describes the location of the Frostburg Mall is (-3,-2). Similarly, the coordinates that describes the location of the Sojourner Truth Park is (4,5).

The distance between the points is calculated through the equation,
d = sqrt ((x₂ - x₁)² + (y₂ - y₁)²)

Substituting the known values of the cordinates,
d = sqrt ((4 -(-3))² + (5 -(-2))²)
d = 7√2 miles
d = 9.899 miles

ANSWER: 9.9 miles
User Astrophobia
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