Question 7114: Find the height of a right triangle whose base measures 10 cm and whose hypotenuse measures square root of 221 cm.
Answer by drglass(89)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! You are given one side of the triangle and the hypotenuse. You should also know that the sum of the square of the sides of a right triangle equals the hypotenuse squared.
If the sides of the triangle are a and b and the hypotenuse is h, the equation can be written:
a^2 + b^2 = h^2.
The problem tells us that one side, let's pick a for now, is 10 cm and the square of the hypotenuse is 221 cm. If we include these facts in the equation, we get,
10^2 + b^2 = 221, or
100 + b^2 = 221
Now, subtract 100 from either side to get
b^2 = 221 - 100 = 121
take the square root of either side to get
b = 11
b is the height of the triangle.
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