If a triangle has sides 12,16, and 20 which length is the length of the hypotenuse?
In a triangle, the hypotenuse is the side opposite the right angle. To determine which length is the hypotenuse in this triangle, we need to check if the Pythagorean theorem holds.
According to the Pythagorean theorem, in a right triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides.
We can find this using the given sides:
12^2 + 16^2 = 144 + 256 = 400
20^2 = 400
Since both sides are equal to 400, we can conclude that the triangle is a right triangle and the length of the hypotenuse is 20.
So in the triangle with sides 12, 16, and 20, the length of the hypotenuse is 20.