Question

How do you find the diagonal of a rectangle whose sides are 20 and 48?

Answer 1

See a solution process below:

Explanation:

The corners of a rectangle are right angles. Therefore, we can find the diagonal of a rectangle using the Pythagorean Theorem where the sides of the rectangle are the sides of the right triangle and the diagonal is the hypotenuse.

The Pythagorean Theorem states:

`a^2 + b^2 = c^2` where `a` and `b` are the sides of the right triangle and `c` is the hypotenuse of the right triangle.

Substituting for `a` and `b` and solving for `c` gives:

`20^2 + 48^2 = c^2`

`400 + 2304 = c^2`

`2704 = c^2`

`sqrt(2704) = sqrt(c^2)`

`52 = c`

`c = 52`

The diagonal of the rectangle would be 52 units.