Suppose your school is located at 1.2 miles south of your home. The mall is located 3.2 miles west of the school. What is the shortest distance between your home and the mall?

Question

Round to the nearest tenth

Answer 1

Hi Grace,

Your home, school and mall form a right triangle. The legs are length 1.2 and 3.2, and the distance from your home and mall is the hypotenuse. That means we can use the Pythagorean theorem to find that distance:

(1.2)² + (3.2)² = D² where D is the distance from home to mall.

1.44 + 10.24 = D²

11.68 = D²

3.4 miles = D

Please let me know if I can be more helpful, thanks!

Joe