Question

Lilly walked from the school to the gas station and then to his house. The diagram shows the top view of the locations of these three places and their distances from each other. Lilly's House 1.4 mi Gas station 0.4.mi School Which measurement is closest to the shortest distance in miles from Lilly's house to the school?

Answer 1

Question:

Solution:

The shortest distance d, from Lilly's house to the school is the hypotenuse of the right triangle in the figure. Then, we must apply the Pythagorean theorem to find this distance:

$d\text{ = }\sqrt[]{(1.4)^2+(0.4)^2}$

this is equivalent to:

$d\text{ = }\sqrt[]{(1.4)^2+(0.4)^2}\text{ = }\sqrt[]{1.96^{}+0.16^{}}\text{ = 1.45}\approx1.5$

then, the correct answer is:

$1.5\text{ miles}$