How do you find the hypotenuse of a right triangle with legs measuring 5.2 cm and 7.8 cm respectively?

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Answer 1 · 2018-05-09T00:25:16

The length of the hypotenuse is #"9.4 cm"#.

Use the Pythagorean theorem:

#c^2=a^2+b^2#,

where:

#c# is the hypotenuse, and #a="5.2 cm"# and #b="7.8 cm"#.

Plug the given values into the equation.

#c^2=("5.2 cm")^2 + ("7.8 cm")^2#

Simplify.

#c^2="27.04 cm"^2"+ 60.84 cm"^2"#

Simplify.

#c^2="87.88 cm"^2"#

Take the square root of both sides.

#c=sqrt("87.88 cm"^2")#

#c="9.4 cm"# (rounded to one decimal place)

The length of the hypotenuse is #"9.4 cm"#.