Question 856996: A car travels 6 miles north, 3 miles east, and then 2 miles south. What is the distance traveled?
Answer by JulietG(1812)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! The car traveled 11 miles.
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I think this is a trick question, mean to have you draw triangles. If not meant to be a "where did they bury the survivors" type of question, it's poorly worded.
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If the problem is looking for "as the crow flies" distance between the beginning and ending points, then we'd look at it on graph. Starting from 0,0, the car would end up at 3,4. We can find that distance.
a^2 + b^2 = c^2
a and b are the straight sides of the triangle, c is the hypotenuse (which you're trying to find)
3^2 + 4^2 = c^2
9 + 16 = c^2
25 = c^2
square root of each side
5 = c
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