Question

What is the length, in meters, of the ramp, line segment AC, below? Round to the nearest whole number if necessary.

Answer 1

10 meters.

Explanation:

To find the missing side of a right triangle, we can use the Pythagorean theorem.

The Pythagorean theorem is...

`a^2+b^2=c^2`

Please be sure to note that a and b will always be the length of the sides and c will always be the hypotenuse, or in this case the ramp.

Since we know the values of both of the sides we can plug this into the theorem.

`6^2+8^2=c^2`

Now we can solve.

`36+64+c^2`

Add.

`100=c^2`

Many people will make the mistake of thinking 100 is the final answer, but since c is squared we need to find the square root of 100.

`√(100) =10`

c = 10

The ramp is 10 meters.