Question

Two students started at the coordinate (0, 0). Student A walked 7 units east and 5 units south. Student B walked 4 units west and 1 unit south. How many units apart are the students?

Answer 1

The distance is:

`\sqrt[]{137}`

Explanation:

The first thing is to calculate the location in the Cartesian plane for student A and student B.

We are guided by the following:

Therefore:

Student A

`(7,-5)`

Student B

`(-4,-1)`

The distance in the plane is given by the following equation:

`d=\sqrt[]{(x_2-x_1)^2+(y_2-y_1)^2}`

replacing:

`\begin{gathered} d=\sqrt[]{(-4-7)^2+(-1+5)^2} \\ d=\sqrt[]{(-11)^2+(4)^2} \\ d=\sqrt[]{121+16} \\ d=\sqrt[]{137} \end{gathered}`