SOLUTION: Avoiding a collision. A car is traveling on a road that is perpendicular to a railroad track. When the car is 30 meters from the crossing, the car�s new collision detector warns th

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Question 281399: Avoiding a collision. A car is traveling on a road that is perpendicular to a railroad track. When the car is 30 meters from the crossing, the car�s new collision detector warns the driver that there is a train 50 meters from the car and heading toward the same crossing. How far is the train from the crossing?

Answer by subudear(62) (Show Source):
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Lets consider the distance of train from crossing is 'a' meters
distance of car from crossing is given, say , 'b'=30 meters
distance of car from train is given, say , 'c'=50 meters
Also the rail track and road are perpendicular to each other so it makes a right anlged triangle between car, train and crossing.
now we know that in a right angled triagle a^2 + b^2 = c^2
replacing the values we get
a^2 + 30^2 = 50^2
a^2 + 900 = 2500
a^2 = 2500 - 900
a^2 = 1600
a = 40 meters
so the distance of train from crossing is 40 meters