Question

If a right triangle as a leg that is 6ft long and the hypotenuse is 12 ft long, how long is the other leg round to the nearest tenth

Answer 1

other leg ≈ 10.4 ft

Explanation:

using Pythagoras' identity in the right triangle

a² + b² = c²

a and b are the legs and c the hypotenuse

given hypotenuse is 12 abd one leg , a , is 6 , then

6² + b² = 12²

36 + b² = 144 ( subtract 36 from both sides )

b² = 108 ( take square root of both sides )

`√(b^2)` =
`√(108)` , then

b ≈ 10.4

That is, the other leg is ≈ 10.4 ft