Rosanne takes a piece of plywood that is 12 inches long and uses a table saw to make a 20-inch cut from corner to opposite corner. What was the width of the piece of plywood?_____ inches
Q. Rosanne takes a piece of plywood that is 12 inches long and uses a table saw to make a 20-inch cut from corner to opposite corner. What was the width of the piece of plywood?_____ inches
Identify Dimensions and Setup: Identify the known dimensions and the problem setup.Rosanne has a piece of plywood 12 inches long. She makes a diagonal cut measuring 20 inches. We need to find the width of the plywood.
Equation Using Pythagorean Theorem: Set up the equation using the Pythagorean Theorem.The diagonal (20 inches) acts as the hypotenuse, and the known side (length) is 12 inches. Let w be the width.Using the Pythagorean Theorem: 122+w2=202.
Plug in Values and Simplify: Plug in the values and simplify.122=144,202=400,So, 144+w2=400.
Solve for Width: Solve for w^2.Subtract 144 from both sides: w2=400−144,w2=256.
Find Width Value: Find the value of w.Take the square root of both sides: w=256,w=16 inches.
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