Question

Donna wants to draw a right triangle. She wants the hypotenuse to be 1.5 inches long and one of the legs to be 1.2 inches long. Enter the length that she must use for the second leg to form a right triangle.

Answer 1

We will use the pythagorean theorem to answer this problem. a^2+b^2=c^2, where a and b are the legs of the right triangle, while c is the hypotenuse.
Since the measurements for one of the legs and the hypotenuse are already given, this leaves out only with one unknown, which we may say the "a" leg.

Substituting the given values, we have a^2 + (1.2)^2 = (1.5)^2. Simplying the exponents, we have a^2+1.44 sq.inches = 2.25 sq.inches. Now, isolating the unknown, a^2 = 2.25 - 1.44 sq.inches. Further, we have a^2 = 0.81 sq.inches. Therefore, a = √0.81 sq.inches or a = 0.9 inch.