Question

Linus leaves his house and walks 7 blocks West to avoid Lucy. He then walks 3 blocks North to visit Charlie Brown. What is the shortest distance between the houses? Round to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

First, draw a schematic representation of that situation:

The shortest distance between the starting point (Linus's house) and the endpoint (Charlie's house) is a straight line. Since a right triangle is formed with the sides of length 7 blocks and 3 blocks, we can use the Pyhtagorean Theorem to find the length of the hypotenuse:

`\begin{gathered} ?=\sqrt[]{3^2+7^2} \\ =\sqrt[]{9+49} \\ =\sqrt[]{58} \\ \approx7.6 \end{gathered}`

Therefore, the shortest distance between those two points would be 7.6 blocks.