GeminiHeat wrote:
A small, rectangular park has a perimeter of 560 feet and a diagonal measurement of 200 feet. What is its area, in square feet?
A. 19,200
B. 19,600
C. 20,000
D. 20,400
E. 20,800
Let L and W equal the length and width of the rectangle respectively.
perimeter = 560So, L + L + W + W = 560
Simplify: 2L + 2W = 560
Divide both sides by 2 to get:
L + W = 280diagonal = 200The diagonal divides the rectangle into two RIGHT TRIANGLES.
Since we have right triangles, we can apply the Pythagorean Theorem.
We get
L² + W² = 200²NOTE: Our goal is to find the value of
LW [since this equals the AREA of the rectangle]If we take
L + W = 280 and square both sides we get
(L + W)² = 280² If we expand this, we get: L² + 2LW + W² = 280²
Notice that we have L² + W² "hiding" in this expression.
That is, we get:
L² + 2
LW +
W² = 280²
We already know that
L² + W² = 200², so, we'll take
L² + 2
LW +
W² = 280² and replace
L² + W² with
200² to get:
2
LW +
200² = 280²
So, 2
LW = 280² - 200²
Evaluate: 2
LW = 38,400
Solve:
LW = 19,200
Answer: A
Cheers,
Brent