One of the legs of a right triangle measures 12 cm and its hypotenuse measures 20 cm. Find the measure of the other leg. If necessary, round to the nearest tenth.
To find the measure of the other leg of the right triangle, we can use the Pythagorean theorem.
The Pythagorean 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 other two sides.
Let the length of the other leg be x.
Using the given measurements:
20^2 = 12^2 + x^2
400 = 144 + x^2
256 = x^2
x = √256
x = 16
Therefore, the measure of the other leg is 16 cm.