Question

Chicago, Illinois has a longitude of 88 degrees West and a latitude of 42 degrees North. Indianapolis, Indiana is located at 86 degrees West and 40 degrees North. At this longitude/latitude, each degree is about 53 miles. What is the distance between Chicago and Indianapolis.

Answer 1

If we make the "invalid" assumption that the triangle formed is flat, then we have a right-angled triangle with sides 2 and 2.
Let x be the hypotenuse of our triangle
x^2 = 2^2+2^2 = 8
x =√8 units on our grid

distance =53√8 or appr 149.9 miles

Answer 2

149.9

Answer 3

Yes