Find the length of the missing leg of a right triangle given a leg of length 15 and a hypotenuse of length 17. Leave your answer in simplest radical form
We can use the Pythagorean theorem to find the missing leg. The theorem states that 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 two legs.
Let the missing leg be represented by $x$. The Pythagorean theorem can be written as:
$x^2 + 15^2 = 17^2$
$x^2 + 225 = 289$
$x^2 = 289 - 225$
$x^2 = 64$
Taking the square root of both sides, we find:
$x = \sqrt{64} = \boxed{8}$
So, the length of the missing leg is 8.