Answer :
Answer:
D) 7.6 blocks
Step-by-step explanation:
Interpreting the Problem
The problem asks to find the distance between Mary's school and home in relation to the center of town or the origin.
The word "origin" hints at using a coordinate plane for the word problem.
Let,
- each block represent 1 unit on the coordinate plane,
- directions North and East be positive,
- directions South and West be negative,
- directions East and West be along the x-axis,
- directions North and South be along the y-axis.
Following these guidelines, Mary's home and school are at (-4,-1) and (3,2) respectively.
Distance Formula
The distance between two coordinate points can be calculated using the distance formula or,
[tex]\sqrt{(x_2-x_1)^2+(y_2-y_1)^2}[/tex],
where the subscripts 1 and 2 represent which coordinate pair each value originates from.
If we let [tex](x_2,y_2)[/tex] be Mary's home and [tex](x_1,y_1)[/tex] be Mary's school then, the distance between them is,
[tex]\sqrt{(-4-3)^2+(-1-2)^2}=\sqrt{(-7)^2+(-3)^2}=\sqrt{49+9} =\sqrt{58} \\\Longrightarrow 7.6[/tex].
