SOLUTION: How do you solve this word problem: Two cars start moving from the same point at the same time. One travels south at 100 km/hour, while the other travels west at 50 km/hour.

Question 893899: How do you solve this word problem:

Two cars start moving from the same point at the same time. One travels south at 100 km/hour, while the other travels west at 50 km/hour. How far apart are they two hours later?
Found 2 solutions by Alan3354, algebrapro18:
Answer by Alan3354(69443) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
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Answer by algebrapro18(249) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Things we need to know to solve this:
1. Distance = rate * time
2.

First we need to find the distance that each individual car went. To do that we use the first formula I listed.

Distance car 1 went:
Distance = rate * time
Distance = 100 km/hour * 2 hours
Distance = 200 km

Distance Car 2 went:
Distance = rate * time
Distance = 50 km/hour * 2 hours
Distance = 100 km

Now lets stop to think about this for a minute. One car went south and the other went west. We can think about those distances traveled as legs of a right triangle. The distance between them would then be the hypotenuse of the triangle. So now that we know the distance both cars went(the lengths of the legs of the right triangle) we can use equation 2 listed above(the Pythagorean theorem) to find their distance apart(the hypotenuse of the right triangle).

Distance apart = 223.6067977 km
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