Two planes leave the airport at the similar time. Minutes later, plane A is 70 miles due north of the airport and plane B is 168 miles due east of the airport. Determine the distance between two airplanes?

a. 182 miles

b. 119 miles

c. 163.8 miles

d. 238 miles

a. The planes are traveling perpendicular to each other. The course they are traveling forms the legs of a right triangle. The question needs us to determine the distance between the planes or the length of the hypotenuse. Using the Pythagorean theorem 70² + 168² = c²; 4,900 + 28,224 = c²; 33,124 = c²; c = 182 miles. If you select c, you assigned the hypotenuse the value of 168 miles and answer for a leg rather than the hypotenuse. If you answer d, you added the legs together rather than using the Pythagorean theorem.