How do you figure out a diagonal measurement of a rectangle if width is 14' and the height is 5'?

1 Answer
Apr 3, 2018

You use the Pythagorean Theorem (a^2 + b^2 = c^2).

Explanation:

Given that the width is 14' and the height is 5', you can figure out that the diagonal measurement is sqrt(221 by plugging those values into the equation.

a^2 + b^2 = c^2
14^2+5^2=c^2
14^2+5^2=221
c^2=221

Then, you just cancel out the "squared" part of "c^2" by taking the square root (sqrt ) out (because they are exact opposites, so they cancel each other out, kind of like addition and subtraction)

c^2=221
sqrt(c^2=sqrt221
c=sqrt221

so you end up with sqrt221' as the diagonal measurement of the rectangle since it can no longer be simplified.