What does the use of Gwendolyn’s direct quote help the reader understand?

27 inches

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the length of the diagonal, we just need to use the cosine relation of the 48° angle.

The adjacent side to the angle is the height of the canvas, and the hypotenuse formed is the diagonal of the canvas. So, we have that:

cos(48) = height / diagonal

0.6691 = 18 / diagonal

diagonal = 18 / 0.6691 = 26.9 inches

Rounding to the nearest inch, the diagonal of the canvas measures 27 inches