A right triangle has a side with length 12 in and a hypotenuse with length 20 in. find the length of the missing leg. (round to the nearest hundredth, if needed)
Let the unknown side be "z" inches Through pythagoras: [tex] {12}^{2} + {z}^{2} = {20}^{2} [/tex] Because the square of the two sides add up to the square of the hypotenuse in a right triangle.
This means that [tex] {z }^{2} = {20}^{2} - {12}^{2} [/tex] [tex] {z}^{2} = 400 - 144 = 256[/tex] [tex]z = \sqrt{256} = 16[/tex] So the missing side is 16 inches
