Question

Can someone help me with this question please!!!!!

Answer 1

From the equation, it looks like we can set up a triangle like this.  One side is x and the other is x + 20 because the northbound car traveled 20 miles farther.  The hypotenuse is 100 because they were 100 miles apart.

Next, we can use the Pythagorean Theorem to solve for x:

a² + b² = c²
x² + (x + 20)² = 100²

This simplifies to:

x² + x² + 40x + 400 = 10000
2x² + 40x = 9600
2x² + 40x - 9600 = 0

After that, we can divided each side by 2:

x² + 20x - 4800 = 0

Next, we have to factor:

(x - 60)(x + 80) = 0
x = 60, -80

Since we know that distance can't be negative, 60 is the valid answer in this case.

x = 60
x + 20 = 80

Using this information, we know that the westbound car traveled 60 miles and the northbound car traveled 80 miles.