SOLUTION: I am having a hard time with a question can someone help me ? My question is this In a right triangle, one leg measures 4 inches and the other leg measures 6 inches. What is the l

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Question 5769: I am having a hard time with a question can someone help me ? My question is this In a right triangle, one leg measures 4 inches and the other leg measures 6 inches. What is the length of the hypotenuse? Please help me?
Answer by prince_abubu(198) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
This is a classic Pythagorean Theorem problem. Here's the formula to use:

+a%5E2+%2B+b%5E2+=+c%5E2+

a is the length of one leg, b is the other. c will end up being the length of the hypotenuse (AKA, the side opposite the right angle). You can switch a and b since it doesn't matter which of the longer or shorter leg goes with a or b.

Let's plug in the values. a = 6 and b = 4. OK.

+6%5E2+%2B+4%5E2+=+c%5E2+
+36+%2B+64+=+c%5E2+ <---- Simplified
+100+=+c%5E2+ <--- Simplified again.

Now hold it right there. Many will stop here and say that the length of the hypotenuse is 100. It's not. This 100 = c^2 really is 100 = c * c as you know, AKA, the length of the hypotenuse times itself is 100. What times what = 100, then? It'd be 10. So the length of the hypotenuse is 10 in.