Question

The length of a rectangular picture frame is 16 inches, and the width of the picture frame is 12 inches. What is the length of a diagonal of this picture frame in inches?

Answer 1

The diagonal is 20 units

Answer 2

20 inches

Explanation:

A rectangular object can instead be thought about as two right triangles with the hypotenuse being the diagonal we are solving for.

With this in mind the Pythagorean Theorem can be used to solve for c

c^2=a^2+b^2

A=16 inches

B= 12 inches

C= hypotenuse

C^2=16^2+12^2

C^2=256+144

C^2=400

Take the square root of both sides: C = 20 inches