SOLUTION: If two planes leave the same airport at 1pm, how many miles apart will they be at 3pm if one travels north at 150 mph and the other travels directly west at 200 mph?

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Question 19037: If two planes leave the same airport at 1pm, how many miles apart will they be at 3pm if one travels north at 150 mph and the other travels directly west at 200 mph?
Answer by MelanieBCC(40) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
first, find how far each plane travelled...
150 mph * 2 hours = 300 miles
200 mph * 2 hours = 400 miles
since one is traveling north and the other is travelling west, and you want to find the distance between them, look at it as a right triangle. If you do not understand why it is a triangle, draw it out on graph paper (make 1 square equal to 100 miles) where the airport is the origin, plane one is 3 squares up and plane 2 is 4 squares over.
Pythagorean theorum says a%5E2%2Bb%5E2=c%5E2 where c is the hypotenuse; a =300; b=400
Therefore, 300%5E2%2B400%5E2=c%5E2
calculating the exponents out leaves 90%2C000%2B160%2C000=c%5E2
therefore, 250%2C000=c%5E2 sqrt%28250%2C000%29=c=500
at 3pm, the planes will be 500 miles apart