SOLUTION: what is the area of a rectangle whose length is 12 and whose diagonal is 13

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Question 493852: what is the area of a rectangle whose length is 12 and whose diagonal is 13
Answer by swincher4391(1107) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Recall that a diagonal splits a rectangle into two equivalent triangles.
Let's look at either triangle. We have a side of 12 and a hypotenuse of 13.
So a%5E2+%2B+b%5E2+=+c%5E2
a%5E2+%2B+12%5E2+=+13%5E2
a%5E2+=+25
a+=+5
So the other side of our rectangle is 5, this is our width.
Recall the area of a rectangle is length * width.
12*5 = 60 <---- Answer