I got into a mess of trouble when I reached the part where it says
"(see the figure)". But I think I was able to get enough out of the
rest of the question to answer it.
One car is headed south, and the other car is headed west.
So the cars are driving on the legs of a right triangle, and the
hypotenuse is always the line between the cars.
First car: Distance from the starting point after 't' hours = 40 t miles.
Second car: Distance from the starting point after 't' hours = 30 t miles.
Distance between the cars
= hypotenuse of the right triangle
= √(one leg² + other leg²)
= √[ (40t miles)² + (30t miles)² ]
= √ (1600t² miles² + 900t² miles²)
= √ 2500 t² miles²
d(t) = 50 t miles .
The cars are 50 miles apart after 1 hour, 100 miles apart after 2 hours,
150 miles after 3 hours, 200 miles after 4 hours, . . . , etc.
