Problem: A cowboy is miles south of a stream which flows due east. He is also miles west and miles north of his cabin. The shortest distance (in miles) he can travel and accomplish this is
Answer Choices:
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Solution:
Let See figure) denote any point on the stream and , and be the position of the cowboy, his cabin and the point miles north of . Then the dintance ( ) equals ) which is least when is a straight line and then
CSH = DSH =\sqrt{8^{2}+15^{2}}=\sqrt{289}=17 \text
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