SOLUTION: Avoiding a collision. A car is traveling on a road that is perpendicular to a railrod track. When the car is 30 meters from the crossing, the car's new collision detector warns the

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Question 162783This question is from textbook Elementary and Intermediate
: Avoiding a collision. A car is traveling on a road that is perpendicular to a railrod track. When the car is 30 meters from the crossing, the car's new collision detector warns the driver that there is a train 50 meters from the car and heading toward the same crossing. How far is the train from the crossing?
It would really help if you draw out the problem to visualize what is happening...when you do you realize that you create a right triangle where one leg is 30 meters and the hypotenous is 50 meters and they are asking for the other leg...a Pythagorean Theorem problem
a^2 + b^2 = c^2
(30)^2 + b^2 = (50)^2
900+ b^2 = 2500
900-900 +b^2 = 2500-900
0 + b^2 = 1600
sqr (b^2) = sqr (1600)
b = 40 or b=-40
but since in this case we are talking about distance which is always a positive number, then our answer is 40 meters This question is from textbook Elementary and Intermediate

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