Question

What is the length of a diagonal of a rectangle with length 12 and width 5?

Answer 1

The length of the diagonal is 13.

Explanation:

The diagonal of a rectangle creates a right triangle with the length and width of the rectangle being the sides and the diagonal being the hypotenuse.

The Pythagoras theory states:

`a^2 + b^2 = c^2` for right triangles where `x` is the hypotenuse.

We are given the length and width as 12 and 5 so we can substitute and solve for `c`:

`12^2 + 5^2 = c^2`

`144 + 25 = c^2`

`169 = c^2`

`sqrt(169) = sqrt(c^2)`

`13 = c`