Question

Cindy and Olaf leave the same point at the same time. Cindy is bicycling west at a rate of 2mph faster than Olaf, who is traveling south. After one hour, they are 10 miles apart. How fast is each person traveling?

Answer 1

Draw a point on a piece of paper. Make a
line to the left (west), and a line down
(south). Connect these two lines with a
hypotenuse to complete the triangle. You
know that this line is 10 (the distance they
are apart). I think you said Cindy is going
2 m/h faster than Olaf, so make Olaf's line
(south one) an X. Now make Cindy's (X
+2), (since she is going to miles an hour faster than Olaf). Now use the formula AxA+ BxB = CxC (pythag). So, now you have all three sides of the triangle labeled, now solve for X and you will Olaf, then put that
X into the X + 2 (Cindy), and you will have her.
(X+2)(X+2) + (X)(X) = 100