Solving Triangle Questions That Don't Really Look Like Triangle Questions

The GED exam may well have one word question involving a hiker, a boat or an airplane travelling so far in one direction, turning then travelling so far in a second direction.


There may also be a question with a grid, where you are asked to find the distance between two given points.

Believe it or not, these are triangle questions.

Example. A hiker walks 3 km due south, then turns and walks 4 km due east. How far is the hiker from the starting point? (The boat and airplane questions are similarly worded.) You might be tempted to answer "7", which would be incorrect.

How to solve? Draw a picture. Of a right-angled triangle.

You now have a Pythagorean question, where you have the two short legs and you are looking for the hypotenuse (long side.) You may also recognise this as a 3/4/5 triangle, where the hypotenuse is 5. There's your answer - 5.