SOLUTION: two cars start moving from the same point. One travels south at 100 km/hr and the other travels west at 50 km/hr. How far apart are they two hours later?

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Question 206256: two cars start moving from the same point. One travels south at 100 km/hr and the other travels west at 50 km/hr. How far apart are they two hours later?
Found 2 solutions by stanbon, MathTherapy:
Answer by stanbon(75887) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
two cars start moving from the same point. One travels south at 100 km/hr and the other travels west at 50 km/hr. How far apart are they two hours later?
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Draw the picture.
The southbound car has gone 200 km in 2 hrs
The westbound are has gone 100 km in 2 hrs
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Using Pythagoras to find the distance beween them you get:
d = sqrt(100^2+50^2)
d = sqrt(10000+2500)
d = 320.156 km
========================
Cheers,
Stan H.

Answer by MathTherapy(10552) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!

Since the southbound car is traveling at 100 km/hr, then in 2 hours it would've traveled 200 (2 * 100) km

Since the westbound car is traveling at 50 km/hr, then in 2 hours it would've traveled 100 (2 * 50) km

If a figure is drawn, it'll be seen that the scenario has formed a right triangle, with the legs being 100 km and 200 km, thus leaving the hypotenuse as the distance betwen the 2 vehicles after 2 hours.

Using the Pythagorean formula, c%5E2+=+a%5E2+%2Bb%5E2, to find this hypotenuse, we
get: c%5E2+=+100%5E2+%2B+200%5E2 ------> c%5E2+=+10000+%2B+40000
c%5E2+=+50000 -----> c++=++sqrt%2850000%29
c = 223.6068

Therefore, 2 hours after starting out from the same point, the 2 cars are highlight_green%28223.6068%29 km from each other.