how do you find a^2 while doing the pythagream theorom

To find the value of a^2 while using the Pythagorean theorem, you can use the formula a^2 = c^2 - b^2, where a is the length of the side you are looking to determine, b and c are the lengths of the other two sides of the right triangle.

For example, if the two legs of a right triangle are 3 and 4 units long, you would plug these values into the formula to find the value of the hypotenuse:

a^2 = c^2 - b^2
a^2 = 5^2 - 3^2
a^2 = 25 - 9
a^2 = 16

Therefore, a^2 is equal to 16 in this case.