Question

A ship sails 300 km west and then 500 km south. How far, to the nearest km, is the ship now from its starting position?​

Answer 1

Explanation:

this creates a right-angled triangle, with the pure coordinate changes being the legs, and the actual distance being the Hypotenuse (the side opposite of the 90° angle).

and so, we can use Pythagoras :

distance² = leg1² + leg2² = 300² + 500² =

= 90000 + 250000 = 340000

distance = sqrt(340000) = sqrt(10000×34) = 100×sqrt(34) =

= 583.0951895... km ≈ 583 km