Question

The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 30 inches. With one of the sides being 18 inches. Find the missing side length. Round to the nearest hundredth if necessary

Answer 1

24 inches

Explanation:

We can find different sides of a right angle triangle using Pythagorean theorem:
`c^2 = a^2+b^2`, where
`c` is the hypotenuse and
`a` and
`b` are the other sides.

Therefore, we can re-arrange the equation for one of the other sides.

`c^2-b^2=a^2`.

Since we know these two sides all we have to do is put them into the equation:

`(30)^2-(18)^2=a^2`

`a^2 = 576\\a= 24`

Therefore, the missing side is 24 inches.