Two airplanes leave the same airport. One heads north, and the other heads east. After some time, the northbound airplane has travelled 27 kilometres, and the eastbound airplane has travelled 36 kilometres. How far apart are the two airplanes?
The distance between them will be the hypotenuse of a right triangle with legs of 36 and 27 km
This distance = √ [ 36^2 + 27^2 ] = 45 km
BTW..... you might recognize this as a multiple of a 3 - 4 - 5 right triangle
Multiplying each side by 9, we have :
27 - 36 - 45