The diagonal of rectangle ABCD measures 2 inches in length What is the length of line segment AB?
Unfortunately, this item does not come with any figure to illustrate the lengths of the rectangle. However, it may be noted that by connecting two opposite vertices of a rectangle by a diagonal, we form a right triangle. We may then use the Pythagorean theorem to solve for the answer.
a² + b² = c²
c in this equation is the length of the diagonal, a and b are the lengths of the sides.
For this case what we should do is define the variables.
We have then:
AB: length of the rectangle
BC: rectangle width
d: diagonal of the rectangle
The diagonal of the rectangle is given by:
\(d ^ 2 = AB ^ 2 + BC ^ 2
\)
From here, we clear the value of AB:
\(AB ^ 2 = d ^ 2 - BC ^ 2
\)
Substituting values:
\(AB ^ 2 = 2 ^ 2 - BC ^ 2
AB ^ 2 = 4 - BC ^ 2
AB = \sqrt{4 - BC ^ 2}\)
Answer:
the length of line segment AB is:
\(AB = \sqrt{4 - BC ^ 2}\)