Question

To get from home to her friend Ryan's house, Shannon would have to walk 7 kilometers due north. To get from home to her friend Emmy's house, Shannon would have to walk 2 kilometers due east. What is the straight-line distance between Ryan's house and Emmy's house? If necessary, round to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

7.3km

Explanation:

Using Pythagoras Theorem

D² = 7² + 2²

D = 7.280

Rounding off D = 7.3 km

Answer 2

7.3 km

Explanation:

You want to know the straight-line distance between Ryan's house and Emmy's house if Ryan's is 7 km north of Shannon's and Emmy's is 2 km east of Shannon's.

Right triangle

The problem can be modeled by a right triangle with legs equal to the distances from Shannon's house to Ryan's and Emmy's houses. The hypotenuse of the triangle is the straight line between Ryan's and Emmy's.

The length of the hypotenuse can be found using the Pythagorean theorem.

c² = a² +b²

c² = 7² +2² = 49 +4 = 53

c = √53 ≈ 7.3

The straight-line distance between Ryan's and Emmy's houses is about 7.3 km.