Question

Harry and selma start driving from the same location. harry drives 18 mi north while selma drives 80 mi east. how far apart are harry and selma when they stop? (assume harry and selma are driving at the same speed.)

Answer 1

82 miles

Explanation:

When they stop, Harry is 18 miles north and Selma is 80 miles east

Their positions form the vertices of a right triangle with legs 18 and 80

Their distance from each other will be the hypotenuse of this triangle given by the Pythagorean theorem

`c = \sqrt{a^(2) + b^(2)}`

where c is the hypotenuse and a, b the shorter legs

Given a = 18, b = 80

`c = \sqrt{18^(2) + 80^(2)}\\\\c = √(324 + 6400)\\\\c = √(6724)\\\\\\c=82\\\\`