Question 19
What are the sidelengths of the rectangle WXYZ?

IT-19
Chapter: AREA OF POLYGONS
Class: 8 (Class 8)
Category: in_text
Question
What are the sidelengths of the rectangle WXYZ?
Question diagram(s):

The image shows how four right-angled triangles are rearranged to form a larger rectangle WXYZ.
Step 1 — Identify common side lengths
Let us look at the tick marks on the sides of the triangles. The single tick mark means those sides have the same length. The double tick mark means those sides have another common length. Let be the length of the side with one tick mark. Let be the length of the side with two tick marks.
For the orange triangles ( and ): The legs are (one tick) and (two ticks) for . The legs are (one tick) and (two ticks) for . So, . And .
For the green triangles ( and ): The legs are (one tick) and (two ticks) for . The legs are (one tick) and (two ticks) for . So, . And . All four triangles are congruent right-angled triangles with legs and .
Step 2 — Dimensions of the orange rectangle
The orange rectangle is formed by combining the two orange triangles. These triangles have legs of length and . When two such congruent right triangles are placed together, they form a rectangle with sides equal to their legs. From the diagram, the orange rectangle has its longer side horizontal and its shorter side vertical. So, the width of the orange rectangle is . The height of the orange rectangle is .
Step 3 — Dimensions of the green rectangle
The green rectangle is formed by combining the two green triangles. These triangles also have legs of length and . Similar to the orange rectangle, the green rectangle will have sides and . From the diagram, the green rectangle also has its longer side horizontal and its shorter side vertical. So, the width of the green rectangle is . The height of the green rectangle is .
Step 4 — Sidelengths of rectangle WXYZ
Rectangle WXYZ is formed by stacking the orange rectangle on top of the green rectangle. The width of WXYZ is the common width of the two individual rectangles. The height of WXYZ is the sum of the heights of the two individual rectangles.
The width of WXYZ is . The height of WXYZ is .
Let us express these lengths using the labels from the original triangles. We know (or ). We know (or ).
So, the width of rectangle WXYZ is . The height of rectangle WXYZ is .
The sidelengths of rectangle WXYZ are the lengths of its sides, (or ) and (or ). The width (or ) is . The height (or ) is .

Answer
The width of rectangle WXYZ is OD. The height of rectangle WXYZ is 2 * OA.
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