After school, Pam skateboards directly from school to a skate park and then from the skate park to a game store. The skate park is 4 miles south of the school and the game store is 5 miles east of the skate park. What is the straight-line distance between the school and the game store? If necessary, round to the nearest tenth.

I don't understand this.

2 answers

It's described a right angle triangle. The problem is asking for the hypotenuse. So use the Pythagorean Theorem.

a^2 + b^2 = c^2
Draw a vertical line with the arrow pointing south. Then join a hor. line with the arrow pointing to the right(East). Draw the hypotenuse which is the straight-line distance.