Question

computer monitor measurements are typically classified by the diagonal length of the viewable area what is the measurement of a monitor that has a regular viewable area of 16 by 12 in round your answer to the nearest tenth if necessary.

Answer 1

SOLUTION

Let us make a diagram of the computer screen, note that it is in the shape of a rectangle

From the diagram above, the diagonal is given as d, and that is what we want to find.

We can see that a right-triangle has been made, with sides 16, 12 and d.

To find d, we will make use of the Pythagorean theory.

According to this theory,

$\text{hypotenuse}^2=opposite^2+adjacent^2$

The hypotenuse here is the side d, applying this we have

$\begin{gathered} \text{hypotenuse}^2=opposite^2+adjacent^2 \\ d^2=12^2+16^2 \\ d^2=144+256 \\ d^2=400 \\ \text{square root both sides } \\ \sqrt[]{d^2}=\sqrt[]{400} \\ \text{square cancels square-root} \\ d=\sqrt[]{400} \\ d=20 \end{gathered}$

Hence the answer is 20 inches