A baby crawls 12 feet towards west and then crawls 3 feet towards south. He then turns towards east and crawls 8 feet. How far is he from his starting point? Options 4 feet 8 feet 5 feet 9 feet

The baby initially crawls 12 feet west, then 3 feet south, and finally 8 feet east.

To find the total distance east or west, subtract the distance the baby crawled east from the distance he crawled west. That is, 12 feet (west) - 8 feet (east) = 4 feet (west).

The baby is therefore 4 feet west and 3 feet south of his starting point.

To find the total distance from the starting point, we can use the Pythagorean theorem, which states that in a right triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides.

In this case, the two sides are 4 feet (west) and 3 feet (south), and we're trying to find the hypotenuse (the straight-line distance from the starting point).

So, we calculate as follows:

(4 feet)^2 + (3 feet)^2 = 16 square feet + 9 square feet = 25 square feet

The square root of 25 square feet is 5 feet.

So, the baby is 5 feet from his starting point.

Therefore, the correct answer is 5 feet.