Question 775522: A landowner wishes to fence -in and completely sod a field in the shape of a right triangle. The diagonal edge of the field is 65 yards, and the shortest side is 39 yards. What is the length of the third side of the yard?
First of all, I know that to get the area, the formula is a= 1/2 bh and the perimeter is formula is p= a+b+c I am stumped because neither of these seem to work if I don't have the sides measurement that I need for these work. Will you please help. Thank you
Answer by MathTherapy(10552)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
A landowner wishes to fence -in and completely sod a field in the shape of a right triangle. The diagonal edge of the field is 65 yards, and the shortest side is 39 yards. What is the length of the third side of the yard?
First of all, I know that to get the area, the formula is a= 1/2 bh and the perimeter is formula is p= a+b+c I am stumped because neither of these seem to work if I don't have the sides measurement that I need for these work. Will you please help. Thank you
This is a right triangle, where you just need to find the measurement of the 3rd side, or the longer leg. This has nothing to do with the triangle-area formula, or the formula for the perimeter of a triangle.
You need to use the PYTHAGOREAN formula:  , with c being the length of the longest side (hypotenuse), and a or b being the length of one of the 2 legs.
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