Question

Mrs. Owen is teaching a 5th grade

class. She is standing 15 feet in front
of Lexi. Tony is sitting 8 feet to Lexi's
right. How far apart are Mrs. Owen and
Tony?
feet

Answer 1

17 feet

Explanation:

We have to use the pythagorean theorem, this is actually a bit more complicated than it seems at a first glance.

If Tony is 8 feet to Lexi's right, then we can form a triangle as such

I can't paste it (sorry)

but we can use the formula a^2+b^2=c^2, so 15^2=225, and 8^2=64, and 225+64=289, and
`\sqrt289=17`

so they're 17 feet apart!