Question

The following are two sides of a right triangle: 12 inches, 13 inches. What is the measure of the third side? *-5 inches-6 inches-6 inches or 9 inches-13 inches-Cannot be determined from the information above

Answer 1

According to the given information and the given options, we can assume that the side that measures 13 is the largest side, it means, it is the hypotenuse. To find the third side we need to use Pythagorean theorem, in this case, to find one of the legs:

`a=\sqrt[]{c^2-b^2}`

Where c is the hypotenuse, b is the known leg and a is the unknown leg (third side). Replace for the given values to find the third side:

`\begin{gathered} a=\sqrt[]{13^2-12^2} \\ a=\sqrt[]{169-144} \\ a=\sqrt[]{25} \\ a=5 \end{gathered}`

The measure of the third side is 5 inches.