Question

On the school playground, the slide is 8 feet due west of the tire swing and 15 feet due south of the monkey bars. What is the distance between the tire swing and the monkey bars?

Answer 1

23 you add 8 to 15, that's how u get your answer

Answer 2

Sorry, incorrect...

The correct answer is:

17

feet

Explanation

review

On the school playground, the slide is 8 feet due west of the tire swing and 15 feet due south of the monkey bars. What is the distance between the tire swing and the monkey bars?

feet

You answered:

23

feet

remember

In a right triangle, a2 + b2 = c2, where a and b are the lengths of the legs and c is the length of the hypotenuse. This is called the Pythagorean theorem.

solve

Draw a diagram.

15 ft

8 ft

c

Use the Pythagorean theorem, with a = 15 and b = 8.

a2 + b2  =  c2 Pythagorean theorem

152 + 82  =  c2 Plug in a = 15 and b = 8

225 + 64  =  c2 Square

289  =  c2 Add

289  =  c2 Take the square root of both sides

17  =  c Simplify

The distance between the tire swing and the monkey bars is 17 feet.