2014 · Q57
From a certain point on a straight road, a person observes a tower in the west direction at a distance of 200 m. He walks some distance along the road and finds that the same tower is 300 m south of him. What is the shortest distance of the tower from the road?
Elementary MathematicsTrigonometry
- A300/√13 m
- B500/√13 m
- C600/√13 m
- D900/√13 m
Explanation
With the tower at the origin, the road is the line through (200, 0) and (0, 300): 3x + 2y = 600, whose distance from the origin is 600/√13 m.