Question

A man drove 12 mi directly east from his home, made a left turn at an intersection, and then traveled 7 mi north to his place of work. If a road was made directly from his home to his place of work, what would its distance be to the nearest tenth of a mile?

Answer 1

Answer:

13.9 miles

Step-by-step explanation:

If we draw out the way he drove, the drive from his home to the intersection represents the long leg of a right triangle and the short leg can be represented by his drive from the intersection to the workplace.

A road from his home to work would represent the hypotenuse.

Since we know the distances of the legs, we can use the pythagorean theorem to find the hypotenuse, or the distance of the new road.

Plug in the values:

a² + b² = c²

12² + 7² = c²

193 = c²

13.9 = c

= 13.9 miles