anonymous 4 years ago the lengths of the diagonals of a rhombus are 6 and 8 what is the length of the side of a rhombus

1. anonymous

5

2. anonymous

how did you find that answer cuz the ? confused me

3. campbell_st

the diagonals intersect at right angles and bisect each other.... So you will have a right triangle with sides 3 and 4 respectively... you need to use pythagoras' theorem to find the length of the side of the rhombus(hypotenuse)

4. anonymous

|dw:1328135974747:dw|

5. anonymous

Yeap, the diagonals of the Rhombus bisect each other at right angles, so use pythagoras theorem

6. anonymous

Pythagorean theorem a^2+b^2=c^2 gives you 5 in the triangle i drew up there XD

7. anonymous

and as campbell says, the diagonals bisect each other.

8. anonymous

|dw:1328185481899:dw|

9. anonymous

i got 10 ?

10. anonymous

its worth remembering the 3-4-5 triangle is a right angled also multiples of the sides i e 6-8-10, 9-12-15 etc another one is 5-12-13 - saves you using pythagoras

11. anonymous

$\sqrt{3^2+4^2}$

12. anonymous

ohh you have to cut the number in half

13. anonymous

That's from Pythagoras theorem

14. anonymous

Yay, everyone XD

15. anonymous

Cheers, nice to be back at openstudy after a long gap

16. anonymous

i am glad to have people like you guys willing to help someone who is struggling in math