Gustavo and Aiden are walking due west through the forest when they happen upon an angry grizzly bear. Gustavo runs away 2 3 23 ∘ 23, degree north of east for 3 0 0 300m300, space, m, and Aiden runs away 3 3 33 ∘ 33, degree south of east for 2 5 0 250m250, space, m. How far are Gustavo and Aiden away from each other?

We can actually solve this problem using the cosine law. We know that Gustavo ran 23° above the horizontal, while Aiden ran 33° below, hence the total angle between them is 56°. Therefore the distance between them is:

c^2 = a^2 + b^2 - 2 a b cos θ

c^2 = (300) ^2 + (250) ^2 - 2 (300) (250) cos 56

c^2 = 68,621.06

c = 262 m

They are 262 meters apart.