The length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is 30 m. The length of one leg is 20 cm. Find the length of the other leg. Round your answer to the nearest tenth
I know how to do hypotenuse but this doesn't seem to work out...help please
a^2 + b^2 = c^2
20^2 + b^2 = 30^2
400 + b^2 = 900
b^2 = 500
b = 22.36 = 22.4 cm
So that doesn't really work then does it Ms. Sue - isn't it supposed to be a even number?
I don't think it's supposed to be an even or whole number. Your directions say to round to the nearest tenth.
Thank you Ms. Sue - I understand now... :)
You're welcome, Deborah. :-)
To find the length of the other leg of a right triangle, you can use the Pythagorean theorem, which 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.
So in this case, let's assume the length of the other leg is x. According to the Pythagorean theorem, we have:
x^2 + 20^2 = 30^2
To solve for x, we need to simplify the equation:
x^2 + 400 = 900
Next, we can subtract 400 from both sides of the equation:
x^2 = 500
To find the value of x, we take the square root of both sides:
√(x^2) = √500
Simplifying further:
x ≈ ±22.36
Since length cannot be negative, we take the positive value:
x ≈ 22.36
Therefore, the length of the other leg is approximately 22.4 cm, rounded to the nearest tenth.