Question 439668: Alex jogged 8 miles due north, then turned due west and jogged 6 more miles.
How many miles is Alex from his starting point? (shortest distance)
Found 2 solutions by stanbon, richard1234:
Answer by stanbon(75887)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Alex jogged 8 miles due north, then turned due west and jogged 6 more miles.
How many miles is Alex from his starting point? (shortest distance)
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Draw the picture:
Use Pythgoras
distance = sqrt(8^2+6^2)
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d = sqrt(64+36)
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d = sqrt(100)
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distance = 10 miles
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Cheers,
Stan H.
Answer by richard1234(7193)  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! We can assign (0,0) to be Alex's starting point, and let  be two vectors corresponding to his motion. If Alex goes 8 miles north, we can say this vector is given by  , and going 6 miles west can be given by  (we assume west/east correspond with the x-axis with west is negative, etc.). We can add the two vectors to get
 , in which the magnitude (displacement) is equal to ^2 + 8^2} = 10) .
I used vectors because if you were given a problem where, say, Alex went 17 miles north-northeast at some angle, then 10 miles southwest at another angle, it would be best to use vectors.
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