L. P. Skeen on sun 24 aug 03
Hey y'all, saw this on a website today, but we can't figure it out. =
Ginny thinks it has something to do with Pythagorean theory, but I =
dunno:
Two cars sit side by side facing opposite directions on a road. Each =
car drives forward 6 miles, then makes a left turn and drives 8 miles. =
How far apart are the two cars?
_I_ thought the answer should be 28 miles, but that wasn't one of the =
choices for the answer. What's the right answer?
L
L. P. Skeen www.living-tree.net
Living Tree Pottery, Summerfield, NC
"There are three kinds of men. The ones who learn by reading, and the =
few who learn by observation. The rest of them have
to pee on the electric fence."------- Will Rogers (att.) =20
John Rodgers on mon 25 aug 03
Lisa,
It is the pythagarean theory - the square of the base plus the square of
the height = the square of the hypotenuse.
Here is how to scale this out without all the math.
Make a dot on a piece of paper.
Draw a Straight line through the dot in both directions.
let the quarter inch marks represent miles.
Mark off six 1 /4 inch marks in each direction from the dot. - mark the
sixth one as the 6 mile mark.
Now draw lines 90 degrees as if the cars had made the left turns, and
mark off eight 1/4 inch marks.
At the eighth one, mark it as 8 miles, and make a dot on the mark.
Now connect the two dots at the 8 mile marks by drawing a line.
Measure the line in quarter inch increments, and then count the quarter
inch marks.
The total 1/4 inch marks represent the toal miles the vehicles are apart.
Regards,
John Rodgers
Birmingham, AL
L. P. Skeen wrote:
>Hey y'all, saw this on a website today, but we can't figure it out. Ginny thinks it has something to do with Pythagorean theory, but I dunno:
>
>Two cars sit side by side facing opposite directions on a road. Each car drives forward 6 miles, then makes a left turn and drives 8 miles. How far apart are the two cars?
>
>_I_ thought the answer should be 28 miles, but that wasn't one of the choices for the answer. What's the right answer?
>
>L
>
>
>
>L. P. Skeen www.living-tree.net
>Living Tree Pottery, Summerfield, NC
>"There are three kinds of men. The ones who learn by reading, and the few who learn by observation. The rest of them have
>to pee on the electric fence."------- Will Rogers (att.)
>
>______________________________________________________________________________
>Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
>You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
>settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
>Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
>
>
>
PurpleLama@AOL.COM on mon 25 aug 03
//Two cars sit side by side facing opposite directions on a road. Each car
drives forward 6 miles, then makes a left turn and drives 8 miles. How far
apart are the two cars?
_I_ thought the answer should be 28 miles, but that wasn't one of the choices
for the answer. What's the right answer?//
Was 20 one of the answers?
The cars went in opposite directions for 6 miles (let's say east and west).
Then they each turn left and drive 8 miles. (the car driving east goes north
and the car driving west goes south). If I remember my geometry, they have
completed two sides of a 3,4,5 triangle, or in this case, a 6,8,10 triangle. To
determine the distance, you join the triangles along the diagonal, and you have
20 miles.
/|
/ |
10 / | 8
/ |
N
< 6 / 6 | >
W E
| /
S
8 | / 10
| /
| /
| /
Shula
in Redondo Beach, California USA
=?iso-8859-1?q?Katie=20Ellis?= on mon 25 aug 03
I don't know a ton about math...usually ended up in
the studio during second period...but...
If both cars drive forward 6 miles and then turn and
drive 8 miles, than we assume (oops...not supposed to
do that in math!) that the turn was a 90 degree angle
and froms an isosoleces triangle using the point the
car started, the point it turned, and the point it is
now. The length of the hypotenous of the triangle
that the car just drove can tell us how many miles it
is from the starting place, and by doubling that
number, we can tell how far the cars are away from
each other....i think.
So, a^2 + b^2 = c^2...
8^2 + 6^2 = c^2
64 + 36 = c^2
100 = c^2
now take the square root of both sides..
10 = c
now double that, and the answer is 20 miles.
I have no clue if that is right...like I said, I
didn't make it to math much..but that would be my
guess!
good luck!
~katie
only 4 days left on wonderful whidbey...
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S Slatin on mon 25 aug 03
The correct answer is there's insufficient information in the question
to answer it. If you are calculating ROAD mileage, you're right. But
most "how far apart" questions want a shortest distance answer.
To answer the question you need to know --
-- whether to calculate the curvature of the earth into the
answer (admittedly, this is a small calculation)
-- if the turns are perfect right angles (or, if not, what they
are)
-- if the roads are all perfectly flat (or, if not, what
absolute difference in final distance should be attributed to
roadway variations
-- if the length/width of the cars needs to be included in the
calculation (admittedly also a small difference).
Since the question is badly phrased, like one of those Marilyn
(I'm-Smarter-
Than-You) Van Sant Sunday newspaper things, we should probably presume
calculations based on 'points' moving rather than actual, measurable,
automobiles, a perfectly flat surface with no variation and no
curvature, and 90 degree angles.
The answer (yes) depents on the Pythagorean theorem -- sum of the
squares of the lesser two sides equals square of the hypotenuse. Each
car travels 6 mi., turns 90 degrees, then travels 8 more. 6 squared
(36) plus 8 squared (64) is 100 -- square root of which is 10. Each car
ends up 10 mi. from its
starting point of a perfectly flat surface, the two hypotenuses
(hypotemii?)
are segments of the same line, each is 10 mi. in length, the two
vehicles
are 20 miles apart.
-- Steve S
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of L. P. Skeen
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2003 5:45 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: WAY OT: Math question
Hey y'all, saw this on a website today, but we can't figure it out.
Ginny thinks it has something to do with Pythagorean theory, but I
dunno:
Two cars sit side by side facing opposite directions on a road. Each
car drives forward 6 miles, then makes a left turn and drives 8 miles.
How far apart are the two cars?
_I_ thought the answer should be 28 miles, but that wasn't one of the
choices for the answer. What's the right answer?
L
L. P. Skeen www.living-tree.net
Living Tree Pottery, Summerfield, NC
"There are three kinds of men. The ones who learn by reading, and the
few who learn by observation. The rest of them have
to pee on the electric fence."------- Will Rogers (att.)
________________________________________________________________________
______
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
Doric T. Jemison-Ball ll on mon 25 aug 03
Here's the answer-
20 miles. [twice the distance of the hypotenuse of a right triangle with
a-6, b=8 where[a x a]+b x b]=[c x c] so
6x6=36, 8x8=64; 36+64=100 and the square root of 100 is 10. Draw it out and
you'll see it is 2x10 or 20 miles.
If they had both turned north instead of left it would have been a trick
question with a correct answer of 12 miles.
Doric T. Jemison-Ball ll
BBS-LA
14622 Ventura Blvd. #727
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
In Southern California
818-262-5367 CELL/Voice/Message
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707-884-5067 Voice
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buffalo@bbs-la.com
www.bbs-la.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "L. P. Skeen"
To:
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2003 5:45 PM
Subject: WAY OT: Math question
Hey y'all, saw this on a website today, but we can't figure it out. Ginny
thinks it has something to do with Pythagorean theory, but I dunno:
Two cars sit side by side facing opposite directions on a road. Each car
drives forward 6 miles, then makes a left turn and drives 8 miles. How far
apart are the two cars?
_I_ thought the answer should be 28 miles, but that wasn't one of the
choices for the answer. What's the right answer?
L
L. P. Skeen www.living-tree.net
Living Tree Pottery, Summerfield, NC
"There are three kinds of men. The ones who learn by reading, and the few
who learn by observation. The rest of them have
to pee on the electric fence."------- Will Rogers (att.)
____________________________________________________________________________
__
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
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