Two people meet in the purple room on the fourth floor of a building. On departure, one person travels West 20 feet, South 12 feet, and Down 12 feet. The other person travels North 20 feet, East 10 feet, and Up 12 feet. How far apart are the two people? Round to the nearest tenth.

Question

anonymous · Answer

attachment

anonymous · Answer

For the answer I got 41.6 ft. I have a awful feeling that I'm wrong.

anonymous · Answer

@jim_thompson5910  <--- Would you please help with this one?

anonymous · Answer

I don't feel that I got it correct.

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

the 3D aspect of this problem is probably what is throwing you off?

anonymous · Answer

Yeah, has me very confused and worried that I have it wrong..

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

ok let's just ignore the up and down portions for now. We'll throw in them in later

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

let's start with a blank xy axis

|dw:1457662478997:dw|

it's a flat plane

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

and let's add in the compass directions
|dw:1457662495803:dw|

anonymous · Answer

Alright.

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

let's call the two people A and B and let's have them at the origin (0,0) to start off

person A `travels West 20 feet, South 12 feet`

where does A end up? in terms of an ordered pair?

anonymous · Answer

South-West

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

20 units west

|dw:1457662647296:dw|

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

then 12 units south

|dw:1457662673754:dw|

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

hopefully you agree that point A ends up at (-20,-12) ?

anonymous · Answer

Yeah, that's what I meant by that.

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

where would B end up?

anonymous · Answer

I calculated and ended up with 54 ft apart now.

anonymous · Answer

um.

anonymous · Answer

The other person would be a sort of zig-zag line.

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

person B `travels North 20 feet, East 10 feet`
where in terms of coordinates, does B end up?

anonymous · Answer

Won't let me draw on your drawing.

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

are you able to state the (x,y) location of point B?

anonymous · Answer

It would be upwards on the north-east side

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

I'm looking for specific coordinates with numbers

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

similar to how A is at (-20,-12)

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

how far east does B go?

anonymous · Answer

22

anonymous · Answer

Well 10 and north 32.

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

`The other person travels North 20 feet, East 10 feet, `

ignore the "up 12 ft" part

anonymous · Answer

Oh okay.

anonymous · Answer

I understand that part, I just don't get how to get the distance inbetween them both.

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

ok so B goes 10 ft east

|dw:1457663238498:dw|