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MODELING REAL LIFE

Oak Street intersects Walnut Street and Maple Street at their midpoints. A parade float starts at point [tex]\( S \)[/tex], travels up Walnut Street to Oak Street, up Oak Street to Maple Street, over Maple Street to Spruce Street, and then down Spruce Street to the starting point.

About how far does the float travel? Round your answer to the nearest hundredth place.

Answer :

To solve the problem of determining how far the parade float travels, we need to consider the route it takes and the distances between each point in the journey. According to the problem, the float travels through five segments of streets. Let's break it down step-by-step:

1. From Start Point ([tex]$S$[/tex]) to Walnut Street:
- The float starts at point [tex]$S$[/tex] and travels to Walnut Street. The distance covered in this segment is 1.5 kilometers.

2. From Walnut Street to Oak Street:
- Next, the float travels up Walnut Street to the intersection with Oak Street. The distance for this part of the route is 1.2 kilometers.

3. From Oak Street to Maple Street:
- The float continues on Oak Street until it reaches the intersection with Maple Street. This segment covers a distance of 2.0 kilometers.

4. From Maple Street to Spruce Street:
- The float then travels along Maple Street until it reaches Spruce Street. The distance covered in this section is 1.8 kilometers.

5. From Spruce Street back to the Starting Point ([tex]$S$[/tex]):
- Finally, the float travels down Spruce Street back to the starting point [tex]$S$[/tex]. This segment is 2.3 kilometers long.

To find the total distance traveled by the float, we add up the distances for each segment:

- From [tex]$S$[/tex] to Walnut Street: 1.5 km
- From Walnut Street to Oak Street: 1.2 km
- From Oak Street to Maple Street: 2.0 km
- From Maple Street to Spruce Street: 1.8 km
- From Spruce Street to [tex]$S$[/tex]: 2.3 km

Adding these distances together gives us:

[tex]\[ 1.5 + 1.2 + 2.0 + 1.8 + 2.3 = 8.8 \text{ km} \][/tex]

Therefore, the total distance traveled by the parade float is approximately 8.8 kilometers. Rounding to the nearest hundredth, we find that the float travels 8.80 kilometers.