Problema Solution
Two cars leave an intersection. One car travels north; the other east. When the car traveling north had gone 9 miles, the distance between the cars was 3 miles more than the distance traveled by the car heading east. How far had the eastbound car traveled?
Answer provided by our tutors
the cars traveling paths a the legs of a right triangle, the starting point is the point where the right angle is thus we have
a = 9 miles the distance of the car traveling north
b = ? miles the distance of the car traveling east
c = the distance between the cars
c = 3 + b
using Pythagorean theorem we can write
c^2 = a^2 + b^2
c^2 = 9^2 + b^2
if we plug c = 3 + b in the above equation we get
(3 + b)^2 = 9^2 + b^2
by solving the equation we find
b = 12 miles
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the eastbound car traveled 12 miles.