Question

Santos walks 2 kilometers south and then a certain number of kilometers east. He ends 5 kilometers away from his starting position. How many kilometers east did santos walk?

Answer 1

Explanation:

Santos walks 222 kilometers south and then a certain number of kilometers east. He ends 555 kilometers away from his starting position.

How many kilometers east did Santos walk?

Round your answer to the nearest tenth of a km.

Answer 2

Santa walked 4.58 km east.

Explanation:

Let the distance walked in east direction be 'x'.

Given:

Distance walked towards south = 2 km

Distance walked towards east = 'x' km

Straight line distance from starting point to final point = 5 km

Now, consider starting point as 'A', end point as 'C' and the point of change of direction be 'B'.

Now, points A, B and C form a right angled triangle right angled at vertex B.

So, AB = 2 km, BC = x km and AC = 5 km.

Now, using pythagoras theorem, we get:

`AB^2+BC^2=AC^2\\\\2^2+x^2=5^2\\\\4+x^2=25\\\\x^2=25-4\\\\x^2=21\\\\x=√(21)=4.58\ km(\textrm{Negative sign is ignored as distance can't be negative.)}`

Therefore, Santa walked 4.58 km east.