Question

One leg of an isosceles right triangle measures 5 inches. Rounded to the nearest tenth, what is the approximate length of the hypotenuse?

Answer 1

7.1 inches

Explanation:

An Isosceles right triangle is one with two sides equal and the angles equal too.The angles in this case are 45°

For this question, to get the hypotenuse, you apply the Pythagorean relationship where the legs will be represented by a and b where as the hypotenuse will be represented by c.

`a^2+b^2=c^2\\`

Given;

One leg = 5 inches, but you know that in this triangle, the two sides are equal, hence the other side/leg is 5 inches.

Lets take one side of the triangle as a=5 inches

The other side as b=5 inches

The hypotenuse as c=?

Apply the expression;

`a^2+b^2=c^2\\\\5^2+5^2=c^2\\\\25+25=c^2\\\\50=c^2\\\\c=√(50) =7.071`

To the nearest tenth 7.071 = 7.1 inches