Question

A right triangle has a side with length 12 in and a hypotenuse with length 20 in. find the length of the missing leg. (round to the nearest hundredth, if needed)

Answer 1

Let the unknown side be "z" inches
Through pythagoras:

`{12}^(2) + {z}^(2) = {20}^(2)`
Because the square of the two sides add up to the square of the hypotenuse in a right triangle.

This means that

`{z }^(2) = {20}^(2) - {12}^(2)`

`{z}^(2) = 400 - 144 = 256`

`z = √(256) = 16`
So the missing side is 16 inches

Hope this helped