Question

a right triangle has a hypotenuse of 15cm. what are possible lengths for the two legs of the triangle? Explain your reasoning. please someone explain in greater detail.

Answer 1

Two possible lengths for the legs A and B are:

B = 1cm, A = 14.97cm

Or:

B = 9cm, A = 12cm

Explanation:

For a triangle rectangle, Pythagorean's theorem says that the sum of the squares of the cathetus is equal to the hypotenuse squared.

Then if the two legs of the triangle are A and B, and the hypotenuse is H, we have:

A^2 + B^2 = H^2

If we know that H = 15cm, then:

A^2 + B^2 = (15cm)^2

Now, let's isolate one of the legs:

A = √( (15cm)^2 - B^2)

Now we can just input different values of B there, and then solve the value for the other leg.

Then if we have:

B = 1cm

A = √( (15cm)^2 - (1cm)^2) = 14.97

Then we could have:

B = 1cm

A = 14.97cm

Now let's try with another value of B:

if B = 9cm, then:

A = √( (15cm)^2 - (9cm)^2) = 12 cm

Then we could have:

B = 9cm

A = 12cm

So we just found two possible lengths for the two legs of the triangle.