Maths questions

Tom is180 m to the north of a flag pole .If May is 65 m to the south of the flag pole ,
Use a directed number to represent her position from the flag pole

-65(north is positive,south is negative)

and find the distance between Tom and Mary .(Take the north of the flag pole as the positive direction)

180-65
=115

Remember that the distance of two places is determined by the difference of the two numbers, where one of them is positive and another is negative in this case. Please do not subtract the two "positive" numbers directly in this case.

As "Take the north of the flag pole as the positive direction",

Tom is 180 m to the north of a flag pole, +180 is used to represent the point.
May is 65 m to the south of the flag pole, -65 is used to represent the point.
The difference between the two points
= (180) - (-65)
= 180 + 65
= 245

Thus, the distance between Tom and Mary is 245m.