the boy starts out running at a speed of 5ft/s then slows to 2.5ft/s over the next 5 seconds...
Then you'd need differential equations or whatever the class is, and you'd have to use more than just basic trig, but as written, it's just basic trig and the time is irrelevant.
But the speed they are moving apart from each other is increasing. Edit: IDK LOL but if you drew it as a triangle the long side would be getting longer and longer, in the first second it might grow a little bit but after some time in one second it would grow a lot. If you need anymore physics questions examined please let me know
Wouldn't that be just a right triangle? One side 5×5=25 feet long, the other 5×1=5 feet long so the hypotenuse would be the square root of (25²+5²) or around 25,5 feet.
That's basic geometry right? It's been quite a few month but I'm pretty sure I still can do highschool level maths.