Question

Ivan takes a sheet of paper and makes a diagonal cut from one corner to the opposite corner, making two triangles. the cut he makes is 17 inches long and the width of the paper is 15 inches. what is the paper length ?​

Answer 1

The length of the paper is 8 inches.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the length of the paper, we can use the Pythagorean theorem. The diagonal cut forms a right triangle with the width of the paper as one of the legs and the length of the paper as the hypotenuse. Let's label the width as x and the length as y. The Pythagorean theorem states that in a right triangle, the sum of the squares of the lengths of the legs is equal to the square of the length of the hypotenuse. So, we have the equation x^2 + y^2 = 17^2. Since the width is 15 inches, we substitute x=15 into the equation and solve for y.

15^2 + y^2 = 17^2,

225 + y^2 = 289,

y^2 = 289 - 225,

y^2 = 64,

y = sqrt(64),

y = 8.

Therefore, the length of the paper is 8 inches.