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An isosceles right triangle has leg lengths of 4 centimeters. What is the length of the altitude drawn from the right angle to the hypotenuse? a 2 cm b 3 cm c 4 cm d 5 cm

User Jaydeep
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Final answer:

An isosceles right triangle with 4 cm leg lengths has a length of the altitude drawn from the right angle to the hypotenuse of approximately 5.66 cm.

Step-by-step explanation:

An isosceles right triangle has two legs of equal length. In this case, each leg measures 4 centimeters. To find the length of the altitude drawn from the right angle to the hypotenuse, we can use the relationship between the sides of a right triangle.

Since the legs of the triangle are equal, each leg measures 4 centimeters. Let's use 'l' to represent the length of the leg. Using the Pythagorean theorem, we have:

l2 + l2 = h2

Simplifying the equation, we get:2l2 = h2

To find the length of the altitude, we need to solve for 'h'. Since we know that each leg measures 4 centimeters, we can substitute 'l' with '4' in the equation and solve for 'h'. Let's do the calculations:

2(4)2 = h2

2(16) = h2

32 = h2

Taking the square root of both sides, we find:h ≈ 5.66 cm

Therefore, the length of the altitude drawn from the right angle to the hypotenuse is approximately 5.66 cm.

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User ShadowDES
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