Answer:
20 miles per hour
Explanation:
Let the east direction is denoted by x and the north direction is denoted by y.
so, dx / dt = 16 miles per hour
dy / dt = 12 miles per hour
x = 4 miles
Let the distance between both the friends be s.
Time taken by you to travel 4 mile, t = distance / speed = 4 / 12 = 1/4 hour
Distance traveled by your friend in time t, y = speed x time = 12 x 1/4 = 3 miles
Use Pythagorean theorem,
x^2 + y^2 + s^2 ..... (1)
Substitute, x = 4 mile, y = 3 mile
s^2 = 16 + 9 = 25
s = 5 miles
Differentiate equation (1) with respect to t, we get
2x dx/dt + 2y dy/dt = 2s ds/dt
4 (16) + 3 (12) = 5 ds/dt
ds/dt = 20 miles per hour
Thus, the distance between you and your friend is changing with a rate of 20 miles per hour.