Pythagorean theorem what is it and how is it used?

Question

This crap confuses me. Please help

Answer 1

It relates the distance of the "hypoteneuse," of a triangle to its two shorter sides. The triangle must be a "right triangle," or in other words it must have one angle that has a perfect 90 degree bend in it.

The theorum says, if you take the length of each of the two short sides, a and b, you can determine the length of the third long side, if it is a right triangle.

a*a+b*b=c*c

So the length of c = sqrt(c*c).

It is used in everything from carpentry, to computer programs, to computer design, to navigation, to building design, and in all areas of the sciences.

It is even used in places people do not realize it is being used.

If you have a triangle with a right angle, the two sides that make up the right angle are the short sides, say east-west and north-south. Now, knowing only the starting and ending coordinates, you know the shortest possible distance. If you were a computer, you could take all the little bends in the road and convert them into thousands of little triangles and know exactly how far anything is from anything.

I found images on the web that might make it clear. See below.

Answer 2

Pythagorean theorem: for right triangles (one with a 90 degree angle) the square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides. Other people here have given the formula. It is often used to calculate distance when there is no clear way to measure it, e.g. something really far away or something so tiny you can't exactly measure it with a ruler. If the right triangle is also an isoceles (has two sides of the same length) then you only need to know the length of one side to figure out the lenghts of the other two.

Answer 3

'Pythagoras' theorem is extremely important! It says that the square of the length of the side opposite to the right angle(=90degree) of a right angled triangle is = the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides. Picture this - For eg. If a ladder is inclined to a straight wall(which is making an angle of 90degree with the ground) The square of the length of the ladder = square of the length of the wall till the ladder + square of distance of the bottom of the ladder to the wall.

Many theorems and other things hang on this.


Here is a short example -
The altitude of a mountain is 500m. The peak is pointed. The horizontal distance of the start of the mountain to the peak is 75m. What is the length of the slope from the start of the hill to the peak?
Or - what is the size of a ladder if it is touching a window 17m high And the distance of it's bottom from the wall is 10 cm?

Answer 4

the pythagorean theorm is used when solving right triangles. the formula is a^2 x b^2 = c^2. side A and B are the legs and side C is the hypotenuse.

Answer 5

a2+b2=c2

c2 is the longest side, so put the biggest number there.
then put the other number in the equation.
you're trying to find the missing side of the triangle.
with the two numbers in the equation, square the numbers, then add, find the square root of the addition answer.

Answer 6

a^2 +b^2 = c^2

its used to mesure angles of triangles and lengths of the sides