One of the legs of a right triangle measures 3 cm and its hypotenuse measures 16 cm. Find the measure of the other leg. If necessary, round to the nearest tenth.
To find the length of the other leg of the right triangle, we can use the Pythagorean theorem, which states that the square of the length of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides.
Let x be the length of the other leg.
Using the Pythagorean theorem:
x^2 + 3^2 = 16^2
x^2 + 9 = 256
x^2 = 256 - 9
x^2 = 247
x = √247
x ≈ 15.7 cm
Therefore, the length of the other leg of the right triangle is approximately 15.7 cm.