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Two of the sides of a right triangle are 8 and 6 units long. How long is the third side? Find all possible answers.

1 Answer

5 votes

Answer:

10 units.

2√7 units.

- (or 5.29 units to the nearest hundredth)

Explanation:

If the 2 sides are legs of the triangle ( that is they are at 90 degrees to each other) the third side, by Pythagoras theorem:

= √(6^2 + 8^2)

= √100

= 10 units.

The other possibility is that 8 is the length of the hypotenuse, in which case

The third side

= √(8^2 - 6^2)

= √28

= 2√7 units.

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