If the two cars are now a straight-line distance of 17 kilometers apart, how far has the northbound car traveled?

Step-by-step explanation:

The northbound car has traveled a distance of 6.2 miles.

Step-by-step explanation:

Step 1:

The eastbound car has traveled a distance of 5 miles and if a straight line is drawn between the two car's positions it would measure 8 miles.

This forms a triangle which has a hypotenuse measuring 8 miles while one of the other sides measures 5 miles.

Assume the distance traveled by the northbound car is x miles.

Step 2:

So the northbound car has traveled a distance of 6.244 miles. Rounding this off, we get 6.2 miles.

for this case we must apply distributive property to the following expression:

the distributive property states that:

then, when applying the property we have to multiply the -2 for each term within the parenthesis: