Help!!! PLEASE!!

Question

Alex, Beverly, and Cal live on the same straight road. Alex lives 11 miles from Beverly and Cal lives 3 miles from Beverly. How far does Alex live from Cal? Please explain step by step how you reached your answer.  I had a hard time figuring this out. Thank you!! 

Answer 1

There are two possible solutions to this problem, and it depends on the order of their houses on the street. I assume your question addresses this.

 

If we assume that Cal lives between Beverly and Alex:

 

Alex is 11 miles away, and Cal is 3 miles away, so the distance between the two of them is 11-3 = 8 miles.

 

If we assume that Cal lives on the opposite side of Beverly from Alex:

 

Alex is 11 miles away from Beverly, and Cal is 3 miles away from Beverly in the opposite direction from Alex, so the distance between Alex and Cal is 11 + 3 = 14 miles.

 

The easiest way to see this is by creating a number line.

 

(for the first possible solution) If you put Beverly as a point, let's call it 0, then we would put Alex at 11 and Cal at 3, and the distance between them is 8.

 

(for the second possible solution) If you put Beverly as a point, 0, then we would put Alex at 11 and Cal at -3, and the distance between them is 14. If you are uncomfortable with negative numbers, we could put Cal at 0, Beverly at 3 (since she is 3 miles from Cal) and Alex at 14.

Answer 2

there could be 2 answers depending where their houses are

 

first scenario:

 

Alex ----------11-----------Beverly-----3-----Cal

Alex lives 14 miles from Cal.  (11+3)

 

 

second scenario:

 

Alex                   Cal         Beverly

                             -------

                                3

      -------------------------

                    11

 

Alex lives 8 miles from Cal.  (11-3)