Taxicab moves 5 blocks north, 5 blocks east, and 2 blocks north. What is magnitude of the taxi's displacement?

Question

I know the answer is 8.6 blocks. I've looked it up on the internet, but can't find anything to show me how to work it out! Any help would be apprechiated!

Answer 1

This is the same as moving north 7 blocks and east 5 blocks which is the same as going the hypotenuse of the right triangle with legs of 5 and 7. You can find the hypotenuse by the pythagorean theorem

Answer 2

Displacement in East = 5 blocks

Displacement in North = 5 + 2 = 7 blocks

East and North are at 90 degrees.

Therefore, total displacement = sqrt(5^2 + 7^2) = sqrt(25 + 49) = sqrt(74) = 8.6 blocks