Question

Miranda has a square piece of posterboard with a perimeter of 36 inches. She cuts the posterboard along a diagonal to form two right

triangles. What is the length of the hypotenuse of each right triangle? Round to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

The length of the hypotenuse of each right triangle is approximately 12.7 inches, rounded to the nearest tenth.

Explanation:

Let's start by finding the length of one side of the square posterboard.

Since the perimeter is 36 inches, and a square has four equal sides, we can divide the perimeter by 4 to get the length of one side:

36 ÷ 4 = 9

So each side of the square posterboard is 9 inches long.

When Miranda cuts the posterboard along a diagonal, she forms two right triangles. Let's call the length of the hypotenuse of each right triangle "c".

We can use the Pythagorean theorem to find the length of "c":

a² + b² = c²

Since the posterboard is a square, each of the legs of the right triangle has a length of 9 inches.

9² + 9² = c²

81 + 81 = c²

162 = c²

c ≈ 12.7

So, the length of the hypotenuse of each right triangle is approximately 12.7 inches, rounded to the nearest tenth.