What is the approximate length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle with leg lengths 8.4 cm and 7.6 cm?

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Answer 1 · 2016-04-30T18:14:34

This is just pythagorean theorem. Remember that?

#a^2 + b^2 = c^2# where a and b are legs, and c is the hypotenuse.

We are given 8.4 as the length of one leg
We are given 7.6 as the length of the other leg

Thus, we can plug those in for a and b (order doesn't matter) and solve for one variable: c.

#8.4^2 + 7.6^2 = c^2#

#128.32 = c^2#

We are trying to find #c#, not #c^2#, so we must take the square root of both sides.

#11.32784181 = c#

The approximate length of #c#, or the hypotenuse is 11.3 cm.