document.write( "Question 388157: mary travels 7 miles north and 12 miles west. what is the diagonal distance from her starting point to where she stopped? \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #274481 by aggie_tutor(13)![]() ![]() You can put this solution on YOUR website! This is a \"right triangle\" problem solved using pythagorean theorem. \n" ); document.write( "The theorem is: \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Where a and b are lengths of the two shorter sides of a right triangle, and c is the length of that triangle's longest side.\r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "We know this is a right triangle because the problem statement says so. The only shape that going north (think going up the Y axis of a chart) followed by going west (think going down the X axis in the negative direction) could be is a right triangle, and the two distances mark the two shorter sides of the triangle:\r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "g<------12------^ \n" ); document.write( " | \n" ); document.write( " | \n" ); document.write( " 7 \n" ); document.write( " | \n" ); document.write( " h\r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "So if the trip starts at h and ends at g, the length of g->h is the longest side of this triangle, i.e. c. \n" ); document.write( "a = 7 \n" ); document.write( "b = 12 \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " |