Question

A rectangle has vertices located at (–4, 4), (2, 4), (2, –4) and (–4, –4). What is the length of a diagonal of the rectangle?

Answer 1

Answer:

A diagonal of this rectangle has length 10.

Step-by-step explanation:

The vertices (-4, 4) and (-4, -4) have the same x-coordinate (-4) and different y-coordinates (4 and -4).  These two points are the endpoints of a vertical side of the rectangle which has length 4 - (-4) = 8.

Similarly, the vertices (2, -4) and (-4, -4) have the same y-coordinate (-4) but different x-coordinates (2 and -4).  To find the horizontal dimension of the rectangle, we calculate 2 - (-4), which comes out to 6.

Thus, the width of the rectangle is 6 and the length is 8.

Using the Pythagorean Theorem, we find the length of a diagonal as follows:

d = √(6^2 + 8^2) = √(36 + 64) = √100 = 10.

A diagonal of this rectangle has length 10.