A military jet flies directly over and at right angles to th

A military jet flies directly over and at right angles to the straight-line course of a commercial jet. The military jet is flying 200 mph faster than four times the commercial jet. How fast is each going if they are 2050 miles apart (on a direct line) after 1 hour?

Solution

Setting the stage for the pythagorean theorem.
the distance between them will be the hypotenuse
their flight patterns are the legs of the triangle.
(4x+200)^2+x^2=2050^2
17x^2+1600x+40000 = 4202500
(x-450)(17x+9250) = 0
we can only use the positive solution
x=450 commercial
military=4(450)+200=2000