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In a computer catalog, a computer monitor is listed as being 19inches. This distance is the diagonal distance across the screen.If the screen measures 10 inches in height, what is the actualwidth of the screen to the nearest inch?

User Shawnr
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Final answer:

To find the actual width of the computer screen, we can use the Pythagorean theorem with the height and diagonal distance. By solving the equation, we find that the actual width is approximately 16 inches.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the actual width of the computer screen, we can use the Pythagorean theorem. The diagonal distance across the screen is the hypotenuse of a right triangle, with the height of the screen being one of the legs. So, we can use the formula a^2 + b^2 = c^2, where a is the height (10 inches), b is the width (what we're looking for), and c is the diagonal distance (19 inches). We can solve for b by rearranging the formula to b = sqrt(c^2 - a^2). Plugging in the numbers, we get b = sqrt(19^2 - 10^2) = sqrt(361 - 100) = sqrt(261) ≈ 16 inches.