Question

A map of Oak Hill City is printed on a grid that is similar to the coordinate system. Each unit on the grid represents one city block. The library is located at point (32, 15) and the elementary school is located at point (28, 15). Which expression can be used to find the distance between the library and the elementary school? What is the distance?

Answer 1

2 blocks south .

Explanation:

The points have the same x-coordinate of 17. So, to find the distance subtract the y-coordinates and take the absolute value of the difference.

|21 - 19|

|2|

2

The y-coordinate gives the vertical distance. The vertical distance of the grocery store is 21 units. The vertical distance of the bakery is only 19 units. The bakery is below (south) of the grocery store.

Answer 2

Plotting the points on an x-y grid will easily show that the distance can be completed just by subtracting the values for x coordinates (32 and 28), since the y coordinates for both locations is the same. This will give you 4 x-coordinate units or 4 blocks.

32x-28x = 4x

I hope this helps, or at least enlightens the problem.