The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 103.1 and one leg is 40. What is the other leg?

1 Answer
Meave60
Mar 23, 2017

#b=95.02#

Explanation:

The Pythagorean theorem states that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. The equation that represents this relationship is:

#c^2=a^2+b^2#,

where #c# is the hypotenuse and #a# and #b# are the other two sides.

We know #c# and one of the other legs, which I'll designate as #a#. So we need to find side #b#.

Rearrange the equation to isolate #b^2#, substitute the given values into the equation and solve.

#b^2=c^2-a^2#

#b^2=(103.1)^2-40^2#

#b^2=9029.61#

Take the square root of both sides.

#b=sqrt(9029.61)=95.02#

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