Flight Distance Calculation

What is the question?

During a flight, a new aircraft flies 240 km south and then 140 km west. What is the distance of the aircraft from its starting point?

Answer:

The distance of the aircraft from its starting point is 277.85 km.

Given that the aircraft flies 240 km south and then 140 km west, we need to calculate the distance of the aircraft from its starting point. To do this, we can use the Pythagorean theorem, which states that in a right triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides.

In this case, the southward distance traveled by the aircraft is the opposite side of the right triangle, the westward distance is the adjacent side, and the straight-line distance from the starting point to the aircraft's current position is the hypotenuse.

By applying the Pythagorean theorem, we get:

140^2 + 240^2 = X^2

19,600 + 57,600 = X^2

√77,200 = X

X = 277.85

Therefore, the distance of the aircraft from its starting point is 277.85 km.