Question

A person leaves work and travels west for 15 miles. They then turn left and travel south for 10 miles, to their home. If a bird could fly directly from the work to the home, how far would the bird fly

Answer 1

Given:

A person leaves work and travels west for 15 miles.

They then turn left and travel south for 10 miles, to their home.

To find:

Distance between work place and home.

Solution:

The person travels west for 15 miles, then travel south for 10 miles.

It means, it forms a right angle triangle with legs 15 and 10.

To find the distance between work place and home we need to find the hypotenuse of the triangle.

Pythagoras theorem:

`Hypotenuse^2=Base^2+Perpendicualr^2`

`(OB)^2=(15)^2+(10)^2`

`(OB)^2=225+100`

`(OB)^2=325`

Taking square root on both sides.

`OB=√(325)`

`OB=\approx 18.03`

Therefore, the bird would fly 18.03 miles.