Question

An aircraft on a reconnaissance mission takes off from its home base and flies 550 miles at a bearing of S 46° E to a location in the sea. It then flies 483 miles from the sea at a bearing of S 55° W to another location. Finally, the aircraft flies straight back from the second location to its base. What is the total distance it flies, rounded to the nearest mile?

Answer 1

If you're solving for the length of that side just use the pythagorean theorem so the hypotenuse or your missing side equals: 
hypotenuse = square root ( 5.5^2  + 4.83^3 )
hypotenuse = square root (30.25 + 23.3289)
hypotenuse = square root (53.5789)
hypotenuse = 7.32

So, the total distance is 7.32 miles.