Question 380439
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?

...
The car, the train & the crossing are at right angle at any given time.
So it is a right triangle situation
..
distance between car & train = 50 meters
distance between car & crossing = 30 meters
..
apply pythagoras theorem
train to crossing be x m
..
x^2+30^2=50^2
x^2+900=2500
x^2=2500-900
x^2=1600
x= +/- 40
...
so x = 40 meters, distance of car from crossing.


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