Question 552088
<br><font face="Tahoma">In this problem, we have 2 unknowns, and 1 known.<br>

We don't know the length or the width exactly, though we do know how they are related.<br>

We do know the diagonal is 10 inches.<br>

We can solve this by drawing a sketch and using the Pythagorean Theorem!!!<br>

Let L be the length.  Let W be the width.<br>

{{{L=3W}}} given<br>

{{{(3W)^2+W^2=10^2}}} length squared plus width squared equals diagonal squared<br>

{{{9W^2+W^2=100}}}<br>

{{{10W^2=100}}}<br>

{{{W^2=10}}}<br>

{{{W=sqrt(10)}}} or {{{W=-sqrt(10)}}}<br>

Since lengths MUST be positive, we can discard the second answer of -10.<br>

So it looks like our width is {{{sqrt(10)}}} inches.<br>

Then our length is simply {{{3*sqrt(10)}}} inches.<br>

I hope this helps!  :)<br>

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