Question

Based on signal strength, a person knows their lost phone is exactly 47 feet from the nearest cell tower. The person is currently standing 23 feet from the same cell tower. What is the closest the phone could be to the person? What is the furthest their phone could be from them? (Be specific in your answer as there are TWO answers to this problem) *

Answer 1

The closest is 47-23=24. The phone P is somewhere on the circle of radius 47 centered at the tower T. If the human H is on the radius PT, that's the closest case, just walk the rest of the way along PT to P.

Answer: closest 24 feet

The farthest is 47+23 = 70. That's when H is on the diameter that includes PT but not on the segment PT itself.

Answer: farthest 70 feet

Answer 2

The phone could be either 24 feet away from them or 70 feet away from them because the person that lost the phone could be on the other side of the cell phone tower

Explanation: