Question

A helicopter rose vertically 300m and then flew west 400m. how far was the helicopter from it starting point?

Answer 1

The helicopter rose vertically, and then flew horizontally, so it's final displacement (distance from where it is now to where it started) is in the shape of a triangle.

The displacement is the hypotenuse of this triangle, with sides 300m and 400m.

We can work out this distance using Pythagorus' theorem, because we know that;


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

Where
`a` is the hypotenuse, and
`b` and
`c` are the two other sides. So;


`a^(2) = b^(2) + c^(2) \\ \\ a^(2) = 300^(2) + 400^(2) \\ \\ a^(2) = 90000 + 160000 \\ \\ a = √(250000) \\ \\ a = \boxed{500m}`

Answer 2

`a^(2) + b^(2) = c^(2) 300 ^(2) + 400 ^(2) = c^(2) c^(2) =250,000 √(250,000) =500m`