Question

An archaeologist at a dig sets up a coordinate system using string. Two similar artifacts are found one at position (1, 4) and the other at (5, 2). How far apart were the two artifacts? Round to the nearest tenth of a unit if necessary

Answer 1

Given:

Positions of two artifacts are at points (1, 4) and (5, 2).

To find:

The distance between these two artifacts.

Solution:

Distance formula: The distance between two points is

$d=\sqrt{(x_2-x_1)^2+(y_2-y_1)^2}$

Using distance formula, the distance between two points (1, 4) and (5, 2) is

$d=\sqrt{(5-1)^2+(2-4)^2}$

$d=\sqrt{(4)^2+(-2)^2}$

$d=\sqrt{16+4}$

$d=\sqrt{20}$

$d=4.4721359$

Round to the nearest tenth of a unit.

$d\approx 4.5$

Therefore, the distance between two artifacts is 4.5 units.