Question

Raymond was asked to solve for the length of the hypotenuse in a right triangle with legs that have side lengths of 4 and 5. His work is shown below. He made a mistake when solving. Explain the mistake and then solve the problem correctly.

Raphael's Solution:
a ^ 2 + b ^ 2= c^2 (to the power of 2)
4^2 + 5^2=c^2
16 + 25= c^2
41= c

Answer 1

Raymond's mistake was on the last step, since he didn't square root both sides

The correct answer should be

`c = √(41)`

Explanation:

`a^2 + b^2 = c^2\\4^2 + 5^2 = c^2\\16 + 25 = c^2\\c^2 = 41\\c = √(41)`

Good luck!