Question

To get home from school, Bob ops four blocks north and three blocks east. What is the straight-line distance between Bob’s house in his school?

Answer 1

Well this question uses the Pythagoras' Theorem (Which I have done a lot on!)

So lets start with the equation the make it easier.

A²+B²=C²

Now we implement where A, B and C are on the triangle. With going north it would be A, going east is B, so we are trying to find the hypotenuse or C.

We then incorporate the numbers on the triangle to the equation so it would look like this:

4² (A²) + 3² (B²) = C²

Then we make sure the only indices is with the letter C:

16 + 9 = C²

We then add 16 and 9 together to find what C² is.

25 = C²

Now we do the inverse to squaring, which is square root.

square root of 25 is 5.

5 = C

There ya go.

Answer 2

That's a Pythagorean Theorem application, and this is the first Pythagorean Triple in the book.

If we don't recognize that

$3^2 + 4^2 = 5^2$

we can do the math:

$d = \sqrt{4^2 + 3^2} = \sqrt{25} = 5$

Answer: 5 blocks