SOLUTION: an isoceles triangle has a hypotenuse 15 cm long. Determine the length of the two equal sides? thnxx

Question 180768: an isoceles triangle has a hypotenuse 15 cm long. Determine the length of the two equal sides?
thnxx
Found 2 solutions by jim_thompson5910, stanbon:
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Since there's a hypotenuse, this means that the triangle must be a right triangle.

So we basically have this triangle set up:

Since the legs are and this means that and

Also, since the hypotenuse is , this means that .

Start with the Pythagorean theorem.

Plug in , ,

Square to get .

Combine like terms.

Divide both sides by 2.

Take the square root of both sides. Note: we're only dealing with the positive square root.

Simplify the square root.

Approximate

================================================================

Answer:

So the solution is approximately which means that the length of the two equal sides is about 10.61 cm
Answer by stanbon(75887) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
an isoceles triangle has a hypotenuse 15 cm long. Determine the length of the two equal sides?
---------
Let each of the equal sides have length "x"
15^2 = x^2 + x^2
2x^2 = 15^2
x = (15/2)sqrt(2)

======================
Cheers,
Stan H.
RELATED QUESTIONS
How would you find the length of two equal sides of an isosceles triangle, when it's... (answered by JBarnum)
An isosceles triangle has a perimeter of 55 cm. Find the length of one of the equal sides (answered by benni1013)
1. An isosceles triangle has a perimeter of 55 cm. Find the length of one of the equal... (answered by 303795)
a right angled triangle has two equal sides. of the hypotenuse is 12 cm, what is the... (answered by solver91311)
a right triangle has two equal sides. if the hypotenuse is 12 cm, what is the length of... (answered by stanbon)
An isoceles triangle has a perimeter of 45cm. Its equal sides each measure 6cm longer... (answered by jojo14344)
If I have an equilateral triangle with a hypotenuse of 82 cm, what is the length of the... (answered by dolly)
the hypotenuse of an isoceles right triangle is 6 ft. long. what is the length of one... (answered by Fombitz)
the perimeter of an isoceles triangle is 54ft. let s be the length of one of the two... (answered by jim_thompson5910,oberobic)