Starting at her house, Janet walks 1.5 miles due west to the playground and then walks 3 miles due north to school.READ DESC

Question

Using the shortest distance, how far is the school from Janet's house?

Answer 1

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. First Chloe, draw a sketch. If Janet walks due west and then due north, you can connect those two line segments with another to form a right triangle. The shortest distance will be the hypotenuse of this right-triangle. To find its value, use the Pythagorean Theorem:

 

a² + b² = c², where c = the hypotenuse and a and b are the legs of the right-triangle.