Question

Imagine you are the teacher. Explain how you would walk your student through this problem to answer this problem step by step.

Two hikers leave a cabin at the same time, one heading due south and the other headed due west. After one hour, the hiker walking south has covered 2.8 miles and the hiker walking west has covered 3.1 miles. At that moment, what is the shortest distance between the two hikers?

Answer 1

Due south and due west form a right angle, and the shortest distance between any two points is a straight line. Therefore, we can apply the Pythagorean theorem and write:

3.12+2.82=x2

Here, you will need to use a calculator to simplify the left-hand side:

17.45=x2

Now use your calculator to take the square root. You will likely need to round your answer.

x=17.45−−−−√≈4.18 miles

As you can see, it will be up to you to determine that a right angle is part of the situation given in the word problem. If it isn’t, then you can’t use the Pythagorean theorem.

Explanation:

this is my explanation