The hypotenuse of a right triangle measures 13cm and one of its legs measures 5cm. Find the measure of the other leg. If necessary, round to the nearest tenth.Answer: □cm
Q. The hypotenuse of a right triangle measures 13cm and one of its legs measures 5cm. Find the measure of the other leg. If necessary, round to the nearest tenth.Answer: □cm
Identify sides and theorem: Identify the known sides of the right triangle and the Pythagorean theorem.We know one leg a measures 5 cm, and the hypotenuse c measures 13 cm. We need to find the other leg b.The Pythagorean theorem states that a2+b2=c2.
Plug values into theorem: Plug the known values into the Pythagorean theorem to find the unknown leg b. We have 52+b2=132.
Calculate squares: Calculate the squares of the known values.52=25 and 132=169.So, we have 25+b2=169.
Subtract to solve: Subtract 25 from both sides of the equation to solve for b2.b2=169−25.b2=144.
Take square root: Take the square root of both sides to solve for b.b=144.b=12.
Check result: Check the result to ensure it makes sense in the context of the problem.Since 52+122 equals 25+144, which is 169, and 169 is the square of 13, our calculations are correct.