The Johnsons need to put up a fence, as shown in the picture. They have already measured two of the sides.
Find the length of the missing side of the farmyard (round to two decimal places)
To find the missing side of the farmyard, we need to use the Pythagorean theorem since the fence forms a right triangle. The Pythagorean theorem states that the square of the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.
Let's label the sides:
- The side they measured along the top is 12 meters.
- The side they measured along the right side is 5 meters.
- The missing side (hypotenuse) is x meters.
Using the Pythagorean theorem:
x^2 = 12^2 + 5^2
x^2 = 144 + 25
x^2 = 169
x = √169
x = 13
Therefore, the length of the missing side of the farmyard is 13 meters.