SOLUTION: Could someone help me with this please. Word problems. Geometry Geometry: The length of a rectangle is 1 cm longer than it's width. If the diagonal of the rectangle is 4 cm, wha

Question 49205: Could someone help me with this please. Word problems. Geometry
Geometry: The length of a rectangle is 1 cm longer than it's width. If the diagonal of the rectangle is 4 cm, what are the dimensions (the length and the width) of the rectangle?
Answer by Earlsdon(6294) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let the length of the rectangle be L and its width be W.
The length, L, is 1 cm longer than the width, W, so L = W+1
The sides of the rectangle can be written in terms of the width: L=(W+1) and W=(W).
The diagonal of the rectangle forms the hypotenuse (c) of a right triangle whose sides are (W+1) and (W).
Using the Pythagorean theorem: , you can find W:
Simplify.
Collect like-terms.
Subtract 16 from both sides of the equation.
Use the quadratic formula to solve:

Discard this solution as the width must be a positive number.

For an approximate answer:

cm
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