jmc

We are dealing in both meters and feet in this problem, which can be confusing. A careful reading, however, reveals that the 9 meters that Henry walked due north are later eliminated by the 9 meters that he walked due south. At the end, Henry is 24 feet east and 32 feet south of his original location. These are the two legs of a right triangle, so we can figure out the length of the hypotenuse of the triangle using the Pythagorean Theorem. Actually, 24 is $3\times 8$ and 32 is $4\times 8$, so this is just a multiple of the 3-4-5 triangle. The hypotenuse - and Henry's distance from his starting point must be $5\times 8=\boxed{40\text{ feet}}$.