One of the legs of a right triangle measures 3cm and the other leg measures 4cm. Find the measure of the hypotenuse. If necessary, round to the nearest tenth.Answer: □cm
Q. One of the legs of a right triangle measures 3cm and the other leg measures 4cm. Find the measure of the hypotenuse. If necessary, round to the nearest tenth.Answer: □cm
Identify legs and relationship: Identify the legs of the right triangle and the relationship between the legs and the hypotenuse.The legs of the right triangle are given as 3cm and 4cm. According to the Pythagorean theorem, the square of the hypotenuse (c) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides (a and b).Mathematically, this is represented as a2+b2=c2.
Substitute values into theorem: Substitute the given values into the Pythagorean theorem.We have a=3cm and b=4cm. Plugging these values into the equation, we get:32+42=c2.
Calculate squares of measurements: Calculate the squares of the given leg measurements.32=9 and 42=16. Adding these together gives us:9+16=c2.
Add results for hypotenuse: Add the results to find the square of the hypotenuse. 9+16=25. So, c2=25.
Take square root to solve: Take the square root of both sides of the equation to solve for c.c2=25, which simplifies to c=5.
Check result for confirmation: Check the result to ensure it makes sense in the context of the problem.Since 3 and 4 are the lengths of the legs of a well-known Pythagorean triple (3,4,5), the hypotenuse should indeed be 5 cm. This confirms that our calculation is correct.
More problems from Pythagorean Theorem and its converse