A bird is flying at an elevation of 3 5/8 feet above sea level. A fish swims directly under the bird at a depth of 5 1/3 feet below sea level. How far apart are the two creatures?

Given :

Distance of bird from sea level, .

Distance between fish and sea level, .

To Find :

Distance between bird and fish.

Solution :

Distance between bird and fish is given by :

Therefore, distance between bird and fish is 8.958 feet.

Hence, this is the required solution.

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graphically?   well, you graph them both, the solutions is where they both intersect each other, since there are two solutions, meaning they will meet twice, or namely the linear will run into the quadratic curve twice, and where they meet, those x,y coordinates are the solutions to the system.