Question

A person leaves work and travels west for 15 miles. They then turn left and travel south for 10 miles, to their home. If a bird could fly directly from the work to the home, how far would the bird fly

Answer 1

Given:

A person leaves work and travels west for 15 miles.

They then turn left and travel south for 10 miles, to their home.

To find:

Distance between work place and home.

Solution:

The person travels west for 15 miles, then travel south for 10 miles.

It means, it forms a right angle triangle with legs 15 and 10.

To find the distance between work place and home we need to find the hypotenuse of the triangle.

Pythagoras theorem:

$Hypotenuse^2=Base^2+Perpendicualr^2$

$(OB)^2=(15)^2+(10)^2$

$(OB)^2=225+100$

$(OB)^2=325$

Taking square root on both sides.

$OB=\sqrt{325}$

$OB=\approx 18.03$

Therefore, the bird would fly 18.03 miles.