A man travels 10 km west, 6 km north, and 2 km east. We need to find the distance between his final position and the starting point. We need to find the distance.
2025/5/23
1. Problem Description
A man travels 10 km west, 6 km north, and 2 km east. We need to find the distance between his final position and the starting point. We need to find the distance.
2. Solution Steps
First, we can analyze the east-west movement. The man travels 10 km west and then 2 km east. The net displacement in the east-west direction is km west.
Next, we analyze the north-south movement. The man travels 6 km north. There is no south movement, so the net displacement in the north-south direction is 6 km north.
Now we have a right triangle with legs of length 8 km (west) and 6 km (north). We need to find the hypotenuse of this triangle, which represents the distance from the starting point.
We can use the Pythagorean theorem:
where and are the lengths of the legs of the right triangle, and is the length of the hypotenuse.
In our case, and . So we have:
Therefore, the man is 10 km from the starting place.
3. Final Answer
10 km