[markwco]

As I mentioned earlier I'm looking into getting the new Sony 42" LCD HDTV. I know that measurement comes from measuring across the screen diagonally and the screen is 16:9 but what are the measurements are the screen width as well as height?

 

[Old Fogey]

This is an example of why you should have paid attention in school. The diagonal is the hypotenuse common to the two identical right triangles created when the screen rectangle is bisected through opposing corners. The Pythagorean Theorem tells us that the hypotenuse (which we know to be 42") is equal to the square root of the sum of the squares of the other two sides of the triangle. Or, put more simply, a-squared plus b-squared equals c-squared. Further, since we know the screen aspect ratio, we know the mathmetical relationship of one side to the other (the height is 9 times 1/16 of the width). As Holmes would say, the rest, my dear Watson, is elementary [algebra]!


Anyway, the short answer is that the width is 36.6" and the height is 20.6", give or take...

 

[dyevin]

as old fogey posted here you can let the calculator figure it all for you...