document.write( "Question 328705: A boat is 8 km north and 15 km west of its starting point.How far is the boat from its starting point? \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #235476 by Theo(13342)\"\" \"About 
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the boat is 8 km north and 15 km west of its starting point.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Let its starting point = the origin of a graph.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "This means that x = 0 and y = 0.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Let west be the horizontal line along the x-axis and let y = the vertical line along the y-axis.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "15 km west of its starting point would be at x = 15.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "8 km north of its starting point would be at y = 8\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "The point on the graph where the boat is located is (x,y) = (15,8).\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "the distance of the boat from its starting point is the hypotenuse of the right triangle formed by a horizontal line of 15 km in length and a vertical line of 8 km in length.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "the length of this line is equal to the square root of 15^2 + 8^2 which makes it equal to the square root of 225 + 64 which makes it equal to the square root of 289 which makes it equal to 17 km.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "a rough sketch of the graph is shown below:\r
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document.write( "                                 x\r\n" );
document.write( "                               (0,8)                        (15,8)\r\n" );
document.write( "                                 x                         x   x  \r\n" );
document.write( "                                 x                     x       x  \r\n" );
document.write( "                                 x                  x          x  \r\n" );
document.write( "                                 x               x             x  \r\n" );
document.write( "                                 x           x                 x  \r\n" );
document.write( "                                 x       x                     x  \r\n" );
document.write( "                                 x   x                         x  \r\n" );
document.write( " x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x \r\n" );
document.write( "                               (0,0)                        (15,0)\r\n" );
document.write( "                                 x\r\n" );
document.write( "                                 x\r\n" );
document.write( "                                 x\r\n" );
document.write( "                                 x\r\n" );
document.write( "                                 x\r\n" );
document.write( "                                 x\r\n" );
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document.write( "coordinates are expressed as (x,y)\r\n" );
document.write( "x is the value of the x-coordinate\r\n" );
document.write( "y is the value of the y-coordinate\r\n" );
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