mechanics non-uniform framework question

they said the thickness of AC and Bc was twice of AB, so if AB has a unit mass of m, then BC and AC should have a unit mass of 2m, and hence have masses 4msqrt17 and 4msqrt13 respectively.. and not what they showed in the ms.. Where am I going with this?

Guess its a badly worded question. Twice as thick must refer to its twice both the width and height, so the mass will be 4 times the original wire. Its not unreasonable to assume "thick" applied to only one dimension, in which case youd be correct.

Ah that makes more sense now(though these ambiguous questions don't!) Thanks

NP. In terms of the common use of the word thick, you're correct as youd say something like a wall was twice as thick. However in terms of the cross section of a wire, it would be unusual (at best) to double only one dimension. Youd expect it to be circular and so doubling the radius would quadruple the area. But you'd hope the question would be clearer to avoid ambiguity.