The legs of a right triangle are 5 and 11. How do you find the exact value of the hypotenuse?

1 Answer
Jun 11, 2017

The exact value of the hypotenuse is c=sqrt146.

Explanation:

To solve this question you need to use the pythagorean theorem.
Which states a^2+b^2=c^2.
Where a and b are both legs and c is the hypotenuse.
Knowing this information we can plug in our values :)

5^2+11^2=c^2

We need to solve for c since we are trying to find the length of the hypothenuse.

146=c^2

Take the square root of both sides.

sqrt146=sqrt(c^2)

Now we are left with:

sqrt146=c

Which is approximately equal to 12.08