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

1 Answer
Apr 21, 2018

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.