A man starts walking north at 2 ft/s from a point P.

Question

A man starts walking north at 2 ft/s from a point P. Five minutes later a woman starts walking south at 4 ft/s from a point 500 ft due east of P. At what rate are the people moving apart 15 min after the woman starts walking? (Round your answer to two decimal places.)

Answer 1

I'm using trig.

From the starting pt. the guy went n600'. 15 minutes later he went another 1800'=2400'.

They're 500' apart horizontal.

From the other starting pt. the woman went s3600'.

To get side "c" I'm using: "a"=500'; "b"=6000'; side "c"= a^2+b^2=c^2.

=500^2+6000^2=c^2

=25*10^4+36*10^6=36.25*10^6

^.5=6020.797289'

=1 mile+740.8'