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The hypotenuse of a right triangle measures 9 cm and one of its legs measures 4 cm. Find the measure of the other leg.

User Remko Jansen
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1 Answer

20 votes
20 votes

Answer:

The other leg is √65 cm

Explanation:

Hi there!

We are given that the hypotenuse of a right triangle measures 9 cm, and one of the legs measures 4 cm

We want to find the measure of the other leg

In right triangles, we can use the theorem to find the value of a side, if we know the lengths of the other two sides

The formula for the Pythagorean theorem is a²+b²=c², where a and b are legs, while c is the hypotenuse

If we say a is 4 and c is 9, then the equation will look like this:

(4)²+b²=(9)²

Raise each number to the second power

16 + b²= 81

Subtract 16 from both sides

b²=65

Take the square root of 65

b=√65, -√65

-√65 is not an applicable root for this problem, since distance cannot be negative

Hence, our answer is √65 cm

Hope this helps!

User Alok Patel
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3.3k points