An architect wants to draw a rectangle with a diagonal of 20 inches. The length of the rectangle is to be 8 inches more than twice the width. What dimensions should she make the rectangle?

Given:

Diagonal of the rectangle = 20 inches

The length of the rectangle is to be 8 inches more than twice the width.

To find:

The dimensions of the rectangle.

Solution:

Let width of the rectangle be x inches.

Then, length = 2x+8 inches

We know that, diagonal of a rectangle is

Taking square both sides.

Splitting the middle term, we get

Using zero product property, we get

Side length cannot be negative. So, only value of x is .

Now,

Width = 5.6 inches

Length

            inches

Therefore, the length of rectangle is 19.2 inches and width of the rectangle is 5.6 inches.