Question

A man drove 14 miles directly east from his home, made a left turn at an intersection, and then traveled 7 miles north to his place of work. If a road was made directly from his home to his place of work, what would its distance be to the nearest tenth of a mile?

Answer 1

We can use the Pythagorean theorem to find the distance between the man's home and his place of work.

The distance traveled east and the distance traveled north form the two legs of a right triangle, and the distance we want to find is the hypotenuse.

Using the Pythagorean theorem, we have:

distance^2 = (14 miles)^2 + (7 miles)^2
distance^2 = 196 + 49
distance^2 = 245
distance = sqrt(245)
distance = 15.62 miles (rounded to the nearest tenth)

Therefore, the distance between the man's home and his place of work, if a road was made directly between them, would be approximately 15.6 miles.