Driving between two distances and finding a shorter distance from original location

Question

a person drives west 4 blocks then turns south an drives 3 blocks. assuming all city blocks are equal and form a grid of streets that intersect at 90 degrees, find the shortest distance in blocks that the person is from their original location

Answer 1

The straight line distance from starting point to end point is

the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle with leg

lengths of 4 and 3

 

c² = 4² + 3²

c = √25 = 5 blocks