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What is the length of the hypotenuse of the right triangle ABC in the figure?

What is the length of the hypotenuse of the right triangle ABC in the figure?-example-1

1 Answer

6 votes

Triangle ADC is also a right triangle, with D the right angle, and AC the hypotenuse.

The triangles are similar (right triangles which share an angle (A), so...

AD/AC = AC/AB
5/6 = 6/AB
AB = 6*6/5 = 36/5 = 7.2

The answer to the first question is "C"

CD can be found using the Pythagorean theorem...

AD^2 + CD^2 = AC^2
25 + CD^2 = 36
CD^2 = 11
CD = sqrt(11) = 3.3
User Wei Lu
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