3. Elise is attending a school orchestra concert. She sees her math teacher seated 16 metres ahead of her and her science teacher seated 12 metres to her right. How far apart are the two teachers?
Enter your answer

20 metres.

Explanation:

Based on the description of the question, the distances between the three people form a triangle.

math teacher

Elise                                           science teacher

With this visual (sort of, isn't letting me draw lines) the distance between Elise and the math teacher make one side of the triangle, while the distance between elise and the science teacher make another side. The Distance between the two teachers would be the third side of the triangle the diagonal side, specifically.

Therefore, your best bet is to use the pythagorean theorem to find the third side.

a²+b² = c²

C² is the diagonal part of the triangle (also known as the hypotenuse).

A and B are the 2 sides listed in the problem. Plug in 16 and 12 into the a and b of the equation:

12²+ 16² = c²

square the values:

144 + 256 = C²

take the square root of the sum:

400 = C²

√400 = √c

20 = c

the teachers are 20 metres away from each other.