Hypotenuse???what exactly is this???can someone please explin???!!!?

Question

The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 5 centimeters long. If the length of one leg if 4 centimeters, what is the length of the other leg?

please, don't just give me the answer, explain how to do it.my math final is tommorrow, and this is the only thing I don't understand!!!

What exactly is this proccess called???

Answer 1

Pythagorean theorem states that for a right triangle ABC, where C is the right angle, and c the side opposite C,
a^2 + b+2 = c^2.

the hypoteneuse is the longest side of a right triangle (the one opposite the right angle)

for your problem, plug in c = 5, b = 4.

Answer 2

You are learning the Pythagorean Theorum of right triangles where a squared plus b squared = hypotenuse squared. Get a pencil and a sheet of paper. Draw a line parallel with the bottom of the paper. That is side b, the BASELINE. Next, draw a vertical line from the end of the baseline and label it a. That is the ALTITUDE line....so named because it points upward. Since you are drawing a triangle made of three lines and you have already have drawn two, the last line that connects the altitude line to the baseline is the hypotenuse line. Draw that last line and label it h. Also, the hypotenuse line is always sloped, that is, it slants up or down like an escalator. It also is always the longest of the three lines of any right triangle. Now you must know the Pythagorean theorum where a squared plus b squared is equal to the hypotenuse squared. Write that down as a sqd+b sqd=h sqd. To solve for the missing leg of the triangle rewrite the equation h sqd - b sqd=a sqd which gives 5 squared - 4 squared = a squared. That makes 25 - 16 = 9.
The square root of nine is three and that is the value of side a. Follow these directions from beginning to end until you get it. Good luck...I know you can do this if you take your time....don't panic. ....

Answer 3

"The square of the hypotenuse is the sum of the square of the two sides" is the definition.

This means that if the hypotenuse is 5 centimeters, you should square that which is 5x5 or 25 centimeters. The other known leg is 4 centimeters. The square of that is 4x4 or 16 centimeters. Now subtract 16 from 25 and you have 9 centimeters which is the square of the unknown leg. The square root of 9 is 3 so 3 is the correct answer.

Answer 4

A triangle has 3 sides and 3 angles.
A right triangle has one right angle (90 deg.). In a right triangle, the side opposite the right angle is called the "hypotenuse". The other 2 sides are called "legs". In a right triangle, the sum of the squares of the 2 legs is equal to the square of the hypotenuse. Therefore, the square of either leg is equal to the difference between the square of the hypotenuse and the square of the other leg. There is no special name for this process.

Answer 5

Pythagoras' Theorem states that in a right angled triangle, the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides.

The hypotenuse is the side opposite the right angle, and if this is denoted by a, with the other sides being b and c, then the theorem states:
a^2 = b^2 + c^2.
Subtracting b^2 from each side, this becomes:
b^2 = a^2 - c^2.
Substituting your values of 5cm for a and 4cm for c, this gives:
b^2 = 5^2 - 4^2
b^2 = 25 - 16 = 9
b = 3.

The process of finding unknown parts of a triangle from other known parts is called solving the triangle. To complete this process, you would also use trigonometry to obtain two angles, and then find the final angle by subtracting the sum of those two angles from 180deg.

Answer 6

a^2 + b^2 = c^2.
c= 5 = hypotenuse a = 4 = one leg
so in order to find the other leg when u got one leg you use the formula c^2 - a^2 = b^2 so 5^2 and 4^2 =
25 - 16 = b^2
9 = b^2 get rid of the squared by using square root
sqrt of b = 3

Answer 7

ok, you have a right triangle (a triangle whose largest angle = 90 degrees) with 4 cm leg and 5 cm hypotenuse.

to solve for the other leg you there are 2 options:

first of all you will learn/should learn that there are some special right triangles (i.e. 3-4-5 right triangle: a triangle whose lengths are in the ratio 3:4:5). there are 3 types of special right triangles:

1. 3-4-5 triangles
2. 45-45-90 triangles (these numbers refer to the angles)
3. 30-60-90 triangles (these numbers refer to the angles)

you can apply these facts to solve countless right triangle problems. for more details, check out the following link:

http://www.onlinemathlearning.com/special-right-triangles.html

the problem in your case is easy if you know this fact. however if you need to solve it using a procedure you can use the pythagorean theorem, which in its algebraic form is:

a^2 + b^2 = c^2

a and b are the legs and c is the hypotenuse.

so, using your problem we will write:

a^2 + 4^2 = 5^2
a^2 + 16 = 25
a^2 = 25 - 16
a^2 = 9
a = 3

NOTE: it is really plus or minus 3, but because we cannot have a negative length we use positive 3.

best of luck to you on your final!

Answer 8

Ther is a certain pattern for this problem. If a right triangle has a hypotenuse of 5 and one leg of 4 then the other leg has to be three. The pattern goes 3,4,5 so it could include 6,8,10; 9,12,15; 12,16,20; etc. This process is called the . Pathygorean Therom. The process in wht you do is a*a+b*b=c*c where a and b are the legs of the triangle and c is the hypotenuse.

Answer 9

You would use the Pythagorean Theorem, which says that for any right triangle with legs of length a and b and hypoteneuse of length c,
a² + b² = c²

The hypoteneuse is the side of the right triangle that is directly across from the right angle (the 90º angle).

So for your problem, you are given the hypoteneuse, c, and one of the legs, say a, so now you plug those in to the equation above and solve for b:

a² + b² = c²
(4)² + b² = (5)²
16 + b² = 25
b² = 9
SQRT (b²) = SQRT (9)
b = 3

Voila!

Answer 10

a squared + b squared = c squared or a^2+b^2=c^2
the hypotenuse is the longest side of a triangle.
in this case you would take 4 squared + x squared = 5 squared. 4x4= 16+x squared = 25. take 25 - 16 = 9 then find the square root of 9 which is 3!! so the other leg =3cm
a=leg
b=leg
c=hypotenuse
its called the pythagorean theorem

good luck on your finals hope this helped!!