Question

three students are sitting on a school bus. ronald is 4 feet directly behind ed and 6 feet directly left of devin. ronald makes a paper airplane and throws it to ed. ed throws the airplane to devin, who throws it back to ronald. how far has the paper airplane traveled? if necessary, round to the nearest tenth.
______ feet

Explanation:

Step1: Identify known distances

Distance from Ronald to Ed: $d_{R-E} = 4$ feet
Distance from Ronald to Devin: $d_{R-D} = 6$ feet

Step2: Find Ed to Devin distance

Ed, Ronald, Devin form a right triangle. Use Pythagorean theorem: $d_{E-D} = \sqrt{d_{R-E}^2 + d_{R-D}^2}$
$d_{E-D} = \sqrt{4^2 + 6^2} = \sqrt{16 + 36} = \sqrt{52} \approx 7.21$ feet

Step3: Sum all travel distances

Total distance = $d_{R-E} + d_{E-D} + d_{R-D}$
Total distance = $4 + 7.21 + 6$

Answer:

17.2 feet