Question

meg walks to school and work each day and wants to track how far she walks each day. in the morning, meg walks 7 blocks due east to school. after school, she walks 2 blocks north and then 4 blocks west to reach work. she walks straight home from work. how far does she walk in all? enter the correct number in the box. round to the nearest tenth.

Explanation:

Step1: Analyze horizontal and vertical distances

In the morning, Meg walks 7 blocks east. After school, she walks 2 blocks north and 4 blocks west. So the net horizontal (east - west) distance from work to home is \(7 - 4=3\) blocks (east is positive, west is negative), and the vertical (north - south) distance is 2 blocks north.

Step2: Apply Pythagorean theorem

The straight - line distance \(d\) from work to home is the hypotenuse of a right triangle with legs 3 (horizontal) and 2 (vertical). By the Pythagorean theorem, \(d = \sqrt{3^{2}+2^{2}}\).
First, calculate \(3^{2}=9\) and \(2^{2} = 4\). Then \(3^{2}+2^{2}=9 + 4=13\). So \(d=\sqrt{13}\approx3.6\) (rounded to the nearest tenth).

Answer:

\(3.6\)