Question

If one side of a right triangle is 5 and the other is 12 what is the length of the hypotenuse.

Answer 1

Let us sketch out the triangle,

To solve for the unknown length, we will adopt the method of Pythagoras theorem,

`\begin{gathered} \text{Pythagoras theorem,} \\ x^2=y^2+z^2 \end{gathered}`
`\begin{gathered} \text{where x=?} \\ y=12 \\ z=5 \end{gathered}`
`\begin{gathered} x^2=12^2+5^2 \\ x^2=144+25 \end{gathered}`
`\begin{gathered} x=\sqrt[]{169} \\ x=13 \\ \text{Hence, the length of the hypotenuse is 13 units.} \end{gathered}`

Hence, the length of the hypotenuse is 13units.