Jenny has a rectangle that she drew. She knows that one side of the rectangle is 6 units long and that the diagonal is 12 units long. Can she find the measure of the other side? Explain how and find the answer.

Question

johnweldon1993 · Answer

Sure she can....you find the length of the diagonal by the Pythagorean theorem 

$$diagonal = \sqrt{width^2 + height^2}$$

But since we want one of the sides we rearranage this into

$$diagonal^2 = width^2 + height^2$$

and lets say we're solving for height so

$$diagonal^2 - width^2 = + height^2$$

written correctly

$$height = \sqrt{diagonal^2 - width^2}$$

plug in your diagonal...and your 1 side...and solve for height

johnweldon1993 · Answer

Just remember that pythagorean theorem...your question looks like

|dw:1371567072779:dw|

So you are basically solving a right triangle for one of the sides when you know the hypotenuse and 1 of the other sides