You start driving north for 55 miles, turn right ,and drive east for another 48 miles. how many miles must you travel to return directly back to your starting point?

73 miles

Step-by-step explanation:

You drove for two straight lines that are perpendicular to each other. Now you want to go straight back, like the hypotenuse of a right-angle triangle.

Use the Pythagorean theorem.

It's in the format side² + side² = hypotenuse².

We know the two sides at 55 miles and 48 miles.

Substitute what we know:

a² + b² = c²

55² + 48² = c²    Simplify

5329 = c²    Isolate c by finding the square root of both sides

c = √5329

c = 73       Final answer

Remember the unit is miles.

You need to travel 73 miles to return back to your starting point.

step-by-step explanation: