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Pythagoras' theorem

Updated: May 25, 2020

Ok, so this is our question:



Find the length of the hypotenuse.



So, what's the hypotenuse?


It's basically a word for the longest side in a right angle triangle.


Now, you can see that this triangle has a right angle.


We can see that the side marked "?" is the longest, but in case you can't tell, the hypotenuse is always opposite the right angle.


So, how do we find the hypotenuse? There's a useful formula for this:


a2 + b2 = c2


Where c is the hypotenuse, and a and b are the other two sides.


So, to find c2, we add together a2 and b2.


We'll say that a is 3 and b is 4 (although it can be the other way round).


3 squared is 9, and 4 sqaured is 16.


We add these together, which makes 25.


Be careful! We haven't got the hypotenuse, we've got the hypotenuse squared. c2 and c are not the same thing!


So now we find the square root of 25 (use a calculaor if you don't know for a high number), which is 5.


So, the length of the hypotenuse is 5cm. Don't forget the units!



And remember, c is the side OPPOSITE THE RIGHT ANGLE. Never any other side.




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