Respuesta :

Apply the Pythagorean Theorem here.  

Square the lengths of the 2 shorter sides:  (20 mi)^2 and (40 mi)^2.  Correct results are 400 and 1600.  Combine these:  obtain 2000.

Then the length of the diagonal (which is the distance between the 2 cities) is
sqrt(2000) = sqrt(400)*sqrt(5) = 20 sqrt(5)    (answer)