Question

Could someone please walk me through this? Word problems always trip me upp

The aspect ratio of a TV screen is the ratio of the width to the height of the image. A regular TV has an aspect ratio of 4 : 3. Find the height and width of a 42-inch TV screen to the nearest tenth of an inch. (The measure given is the length of the diagonal across the screen.)

Thank you!

Answer 1

well.. do you know what TV stuff part means?

Answer 2

or...hmm do you know what a 4:3 ratio means?

Answer 3

Wait a minute... is the 47 inches across? So we just take that and the ratio to find the length of the regular sized tv? I'm not sure if I'm doing this right

Answer 4

hmm 47? didn't your posting say 42?

Answer 5

42 I mean, sorry haha

Answer 6

ok...do you know what they mean by the diagonal on a TV and stuff?
I assume you have a TV, how big is your tv anyway?

Answer 7

I don't know, I rarely use it nowadays. (you know, with netflix and all). Am I supposed to set up an equation like this?

then cross multiply to solve for x?

Answer 8

well... ok... ever gone to hmm a store and you notice they're selling 19" tv screen, or 40" big screen TV's?

Answer 9

Yeah, I've seen that

Answer 10

ok... do they look to you like a 19" tv? I mean they're too big for a 19" one =)
or a 40", they're huge for just 40"
and 19" what? 40" what?

what they really mean is, the diagonal is 19" or 40"
meaning if you buy the TV, and you run a diagonal line from the bottom left, to the top right, you'll get 19" or 40"

also notice, even your computer screen uses those ratios btw, all screen electronics as well
say you have a phone, they sell say a 5" phone, 5" of what? well, that means, ifyou run a diagonal from bottom left to top right on your phone, the diagonal will be 5" :)