Use the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate the length of the diagonal of each laptop screen.
B
We will use the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate the length of the diagonal of each laptop screen. The Pythagorean Theorem is true for every right triangle with legs a and b and hypotenuse c.
A laptop screen is a rectangle, but we still can use the Pythagorean Theorem. This is because the diagonal of a rectangle divides it into two right triangles.
The Pythagorean Theorem allows us to determine the length of the diagonal c knowing the side lengths of a rectangle a and b.
a^2+b^2=c^2 ⇒ c=sqrt(a^2+b^2)
Finally we will calculate the diagonal of the first laptop screen. In this case a= 9 and b= 12. Let's substitute these values into the formula.
The length of the diagonal of the first laptop screen is 15in. Let's follow the same process to calculate the length of the diagonal of each of the remaining laptop screens.
Option
a
b
sqrt(a^2+b^2)
c
A
9
12
sqrt(9^2+ 12^2)
15
B
11.25
20
sqrt(11.25^2+ 20^2)
≈ 22.95
C
6.75
12
sqrt(6.75^2+ 12^2)
≈ 13.77
D
6
8
sqrt(6^2+ 8^2)
10
Note that all of the lengths, a, b, and c are expressed in inches. We can see that the length of the diagonal of the second laptop screen is the greatest. This corresponds to option B.
