Question

Tom and Blair live the same

distance from their school.
Marcia lives 2 blocks from the
school, but 7 blocks from Blair.
She lives 1 block closer to the
school than she does to Tom.
They all live on the same street
as the school. How far apart do
Tom and Blair live?

Answer 1

Explanation:

We can think of this problem like a triangle that Tom, Blair, and Marcia live in.

This triangle is a right triangle.

the opposite is 3, the hypotenuse is 7, and the adjacent side is unknown.

Solving for the adjacent side will give us the distance that Tom and Blair live from each other

a^2 +b^2 = c^2

3^2 + b^2= 7^2

Now we solve for B

7^2 =49

3^3=9

9+b^2=49

Now we subtract

49-9=40

9+40=49

The square root of 40 is 6.3246

Now we check our work

3^2 +6.32^2=7^2

9+ 40 =49

The answer is, tom and Blair live approximately 6.3246 blocks from each other

Hope this helps!