A car travels 35 km west and 75 km north. what distance did it travel?
This looks like a straight addition problem.
What is YOUR answer?
since they are not in opposite directions, i think we should add the two and end up getting 110. Is that correct?
Yes. The car traveled 110 km.
yes, distance is 110km. However, DISPLACEMENT is not 110km
displacement=sqrt(75^2+35^2)
and direction has to be specified with displacement.
To find the distance the car traveled, we can use the Pythagorean theorem, which states that in a right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.
In this case, the car traveled 35 km west and 75 km north, forming a right-angled triangle. We can consider the west direction as the horizontal side of the triangle and the north direction as the vertical side.
Using the Pythagorean theorem, we can calculate the distance traveled as follows:
Distance = √(35^2 + 75^2)
Simplifying:
Distance = √(1225 + 5625)
Distance = √(6850)
Now, we can approximate the square root of 6850:
Distance ≈ 82.77 km (rounded to two decimal places)
Therefore, the car traveled approximately 82.77 km.