You drive 7.5 km in a straight line in a direction east of north. a. Find the distances you would have to drive straight east and then straight north to arrive at the same point.
b. Show that you still arrive at the same point if the east and north legs are reversed in order.

a)  a = 5.3 km, b) sum fulfills the commutative property

Explanation:

This is a vector exercise, If you drive east from north, we can find the vector using the Pythagorean theorem

              R² = a² + b²

where R is the resultant vector R = 7.5 km and the others are the legs

If we assume that the two legs are equal to = be

             R² = 2 a²

             r = √2 a

             a = r /√2

we calculate

             a = 7.5 /√2

             a = 5.3 km

therefore, you must drive 5.3 km east and then 5.3 km north and you will reach the same point

b) As the sum fulfills the commutative property, the order of the elements does not alter the result

         a + b = b + a

therefore, it does not matter in what order the path is carried out, it always reaches the same end point