A man walks 5 miles North, 3 miles West, 8 miles South, and 7 miles East. What is his distance from his starting point?
Mark a point on a grid representing where he starts . Draw a line 5 units up (north), 3 units left (west), 8 units down (south), 7 units right (east).
Now you have a starting point and an ending point. The distance between two points and is given by the formula . Can you solve this now?
You can also do it in your head if you want. 5-8 = -3, so he walked a net distance of 3 miles south. 7-3 = 4, so he walked a net distance of 4 miles east.
If he started at (0,0) he ended at (4,-3) is that what you arrived at?
North is positive y south i negative y west is negative x and east is positive x.
is he starts at the origin (0,0) then
north 5 is (0,0)+(0,5)=(0,5)
west 3 is (-3,0)+(0,5)=(-3,5)
south 8 is (0,-8)+(-3,5)=(-3,-3)
east 7 is (7,0)+(-3,-3)=(4,-3)
so he is 5 miles from the origin becuase he is on a 3,4,5 right triangle
or we could use the distance formula
using the ending (4,-3) and starting (0,0) points we get...
I hope this helps.