Jason wants to walk the shortest distance to get from the parking lot to the beach.

(Diagram: http://i.imgur.com/4yumTmk.png)

a. How far is the spot on the beach from the parking lot?

b. How far will he have to walk from the parking lot to get to the refreshment stand?
--
I'm not looking for a direct answer, rather, I'd like someone to rewrite the problem as an equation (equations?) so I can find the 2 sides. I think I can solve it from there!

Question

Jason wants to walk the shortest distance to get from the parking lot to the beach.

(Diagram: http://i.imgur.com/4yumTmk.png)

a.  How far is the spot on the beach from the parking lot?

b.  How far will he have to walk from the parking lot to get to the refreshment stand?
--
I'm not looking for a direct answer, rather, I'd like someone to rewrite the problem as an equation (equations?) so I can find the 2 sides. I think I can solve it from there!

raden · Answer

a) let the distance be x. to get distance from parking lot to the beach, u can use  the similarity triangles :
|dw:1365558589434:dw|