Originally Posted by Iucounu
Good point; there are many unknowns, but streets are possibly involved. I feel strongly that any proper answer would take into account the geographic layout of the area, as well as the curvature of the Earth. Sadly, such suggestions drop like lead balloons in a vacuum when advanced during an educational team meeting.

I think it's safe to assume that this is a bad way of phrasing a linear math question, but even then it's still a failure, because they don't even bother to indicate whether this is an addition or a subtraction problem. Was the library further from the house, or the shop? Just because she stopped at the library first doesn't mean it's closer.

- You can bring books into a shop, but you can't bring many things you might buy at an unspecified type of shop into a library.

- Going to your furthest destination first means you're unencumbered for a greater portion of your trip.