Question

The Frostburg-Truth bus travels on a straight road from Frostburg Mall to Sojourner Truth Park. The mall is 3 miles west and 4 miles south of the City Center. The park is 3 miles east and 5 miles north of the Center. How far is it from the mall to the park to the nearest tenth of a mile?

Answer 1

We take the distance from points which indicates the location of the park and the mall.

For distance through north and east, we have positive values and negative for west and south. 

Mall:   (-3, -4)
Park:   (3, 5)

The distance is calculate through the equation,
                      d = sqrt ((x₂ - x₁)² + (y₂ - y₁)²)

Substituting,
                      d = sqrt ((-4 - 5)² + (-3 - 3)²
                             d = sqrt 117 = 10.82
Thus, the distance between the mall and the park is approximately 10.82 miles.