Consider the coordinate plane:
1. The origin is the point where Sharon and Jacob started - (0,0).
2. North - positive y-direction, south - negetive y-direction.
3. East - positive x-direction, west - negative x-direction.
Then,
- if Jacob walked 3 m north and then 4 m west, the point where he is now has coordinates (-4,3);
- if Sharon walked 5 m south and 12 m east, the point where she is now has coordinates (12,-5).
The distance between two points with coordinates and
can be calculated using formula
Therefore, the distance between Jacob and Sharon is