A woman starts out walking due north for 2 miles, and then she turns due west and continues for another 2 miles. How far from her starting point is she?
For this case we can model the problem as a rectangle triangle. We have: Length of the sides of the triangle. We want to find: Length of the hypotenuse. Using the Pythagorean theorem we have: [tex]d ^ 2 = 2 ^ 2 + 2 ^ 2
[/tex] [tex]d = \sqrt{2 ^ 2 + 2 ^ 2}
d = \sqrt{4 + 4}
d = \sqrt{8}
d = 2\sqrt{2}
[/tex] Answer: She is: [tex]d = 2\sqrt{2} [/tex] miles far from her starting point
