Question

Before digging the basement of a new rectangular building, a man drove poles into the ground at the four corners of the rectangle and measured its diagonals. The dimensions of the rectangle were 9' x 7', and the man wants all the corners to be 90° angles. What should the length of each diagonal be? Estimate your answer.

Answer 1

Given:

The dimensions of the rectangle were 9' x 7', and the man wants all the corners to be 90° angles.

So, we will find the length of the diagonal using the Pythagorean theorem

The length of the diagonal will be as follows:

$diagonal=\sqrt{9^2+7^2}=\sqrt{81+49}=\sqrt{130}=11.40175$

Rounding to the nearest tenth

So, the answer

The length of each diagonal = 11.4'