[Math] Find an area of a rectangle by its diagonal and quotient of its sides.

geometry

Okay, I've found no formulas for this one online but I'm pretty sure that the area of a rectangle is calculable from its diagonal and ratio (quotient of its sides).

Think of it: with a constant quotient of sides, the rectangle will always have the same shape and a variable diagonal would only affect its size — the length of sides is directly proportional to the diagonal of the rectangle.

So how exactly would I go about calculating the sides of a rectangle if only the diagonal and quotient of sides is known?

Best Answer

Say the length and width are $L,W$. We are given values $A,B$ with $$\frac LW = A\quad\&\quad L^2+W^2=B^2$$

We note that $$L=AW\implies (1+A^2)W^2=B^2\implies W=\frac B{\sqrt {1+A^2}}$$

It follows that $$Area =LW = AW^2= \frac {AB^2}{1+A^2}$$