Problem 1
Let the house be located at (0,0) which is the origin.
If Lara travels from home to school, then she goes 5 miles west and 7 miles north of her house.
The school is located at the point (-5,7). Recall that "west" is to the left so we go into the negative x region.
From the school, she travels 20 miles south and 15 miles east.
We will add 15 to the x coordinate so she travels 15 miles east. We go from (-5,7) to (10,7) after adding 15 to the x coordinate. Then subtract 20 from the y coordinate to move 20 miles south. We go from (10,7) to (10,-13)
To recap:
Lara's house is at (0,0)
The school is at (-5,7)
After school she moves to the final point (10,-13)
If we wanted to know what is the fastest way from her house (0,0) to the final point (10,-13), then we would say "move 10 miles east and 13 miles south". Following this path is a direct straight line path. It is the shortest route.
The translation vector would be <x,y> = <15, -20> which says "move 15 units to the right, move 20 units down" if Lara starts at the school and ends up at the final position mentioned earlier.
Your teacher may want you to use the notation (x,y) --> (x+15, y-20) which says the same basic thing.
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Problem 2
Point A = (0,0) is the town center
Point B = (-3,-8) is the warehouse location
Point C = (1,-5) is the truck's final position
The same idea will apply as used in problem 1. We start at (0,0) and move 3 miles west and 8 miles south to get to (-3,-8) which is the warehouse location.
Then we travel 3 miles north to get to (-3,-5) and then 4 miles east landing us on (1,-5)
The translation vector will be <x,y> = <4,3> because of the statement "truck travels 3 miles north [then east] for 4 miles"
