SOLUTION: if the length of the legs of a right triangle are 5 and 7, what is the length of the hypotenuse?

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Question 592875: if the length of the legs of a right triangle are 5 and 7, what is the length of the hypotenuse?
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

We basically have this triangle set up:





To find the unknown length, we need to use the Pythagorean Theorem.


Remember, the Pythagorean Theorem is where "a" and "b" are the legs of a triangle and "c" is the hypotenuse.


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 .


Square to get .


Combine like terms.


Rearrange the equation.


Take the square root of both sides. Note: only the positive square root is considered (since a negative length doesn't make sense).


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Answer:


So the solution is which approximates to .


So the hypotenuse is roughly 8.602 units long.

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