Answer:
17 miles.
Step-by-step explanation:
Let's define:
North as the positive y-axis
East as the positive x-axis.
We know that Laura lives 15 miles east of Kevin's place.
Kevin lives 8 miles south of Michelle's place.
So, if we define the origin, (0, 0) as Laura's place.
From:
"that Laura lives 15 miles east of Kevin's place."
We have that the location of Kevin's house is 15 miles west from Laura's place, then Kevin's house is at:
(0, 0) + (-15mi, 0) = (-15mi, 0)
From Kevin lives 8 miles south of Michelle's place, we know that Michelle's live 8 miles north of Kevin's place.
Then the location of Michele's house is the location of Kevin's plus (0, 8mi).
Michelle's house is located at:
(-15mi, 0) + (0, 8mi) =(-15mi, 8mi)
Now we want to find the distance between Michelle's house and Laura's house.
Michelle's house is at (-15mi, 8mi)
Laura's house is at (0mi, 0mi)
Remember that the distance between two points (a, b) and (c, d) is given by:
[tex]D = \sqrt{(a - c)^2 + (b - d)^2}[/tex]
Then the distance between (-15mi, 8mi) and (0mi, 0mi) is:
[tex]D = \sqrt{(-15mi - 0mi)^2 + (8mi - 0mi)^2} = 17mi[/tex]
The correct option is the first one, 17 miles.
