David leaving his house

Question

David leaves his house to go to school. He walks 200 meters west and 125 meters north. How far is he from his starting point? Round to the nearest whole meter.

Answer 1

Answer 2

You need to understand the Pythagorean theorem to solve this problem.

Draw a right triangle. David starts at one point of the hypotenuse. He travels along the legs ( 200m and then 125 m) but your goal is to find the length of the hypotenuse.

a²+b²=c²

200²+125²=c²

^{c=√55625=235.85 m}

Answer 3

The picture below diagrams David's path. He walks 200 meters west then 125 meters north. If we draw in the distance from the starting point, we have formed a right triangle with the distance from the starting point as the hypotenuse.

Per the Pythagorean Theorem: a**2 + b**2 = c**2, where a and b are the legs of a right triangle and c is the hypotenuse, 200**2 + 125**2 = distance from starting point**2, which means distance from starting point square is 55,626. Taking the square root of that number, distance from starting point is 235.85 meters, which rounded to the nearest meter is 236 meters.

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125 | \

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200