<p>one hot air balloon is 10 kilometers east and 3 kilometers north of an airport tower. a second hot air balloon at the same altitude is 2 km west and 5 km south of the same airport tower. how many km separate the hot air balloons?</p>
<p>ok... i though that you would find the hypotenuse of each triangle and add them to get 15.8 ish, but the book says that the answer is 14.4.
someone please help!</p>
<p>Just draw the lines, make one big triangle. The sides of the legs will be 12 and 8. 12^2 + 8^2 = c^2, c=14.4</p>
<p>you need to use the distance formula: d=sqrt[(x2-x1)?+(y2-y1)?]
so you would have d=sqrt(10+2)?+(3+5)?
d=sqrt144+64
d=sqrt208
d=14.42</p>
<p>Yeah, his way is faster, so ignore my post.</p>
<p>ok thanks!</p>
<p>i did it nyjunior's way but i dont see why your way with adding the hyps wont work, even though it is harder.</p>
<p>would it be a rounding error?</p>
<p>you could only add the hyps if the angles created by each triangle were the same... 2:5 not= 3:10 so the angle won't be the same. if you had 2:5 and 4:10 then that way would work.</p>