Two people start from the same point. One walks east at 6 mi/h and the other walks northeast at 4 mi/h. How fast is the distance between the people changing after 15 minutes?

Answer 1

Karhleen,

you have a "pythagorean related rates " problem

x²+y²=z²

take the derivative of both sides and fill in the information

you are given dx/dt and dy/dt

you can find the value for x and y at 15 minutes

and you are trying to get dz/dt

hope this helps--Andrew F.

Answer 2

Please see video :-)