Miguel hiked 3 miles due north and then 2 miles due east. How far is he from his starting point?

Question

1240 views around the world

You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License

Answer 1 · 2018-04-17T18:01:20

He is 3.6 miles from his starting point.

Begin by drawing the diagram to set up the situation
3 miles north
2 miles east
Resultant =?

enter image source here

Now we can use the Pythagorean Theorem to solve for the Resultant distant.

$a^{2} + b^{2} = c^{2}$ $a^2 + b^2 = c^2$

$3^{2} + 2^{2} = R^{2}$ $3^2 + 2^2 = R^2$

$9 + 4 = R^{2}$ $9 + 4 = R^2$

$13 = R^{2}$ $13 = R^2$

$\sqrt{13} = R$ $sqrt13 = R$

$3.60 = R$ $3.60 = R$