How do you find the missing sides of a right triangle given a = 5, b = 3, c = ____?

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Answer 1 · 2015-05-09T23:00:37

c = 4.

Reminder: The ratio of the sides of a right triangle: 3:4:5.

Answer 2 · 2015-05-09T23:12:33

Which side is the hypotenuse?
If the hypotenuse is #c#, then use

#a^2 +b^2=c^2# to get:

#5^2+3^2=c^2#, so #c^2=34# abd

#c=sqrt34#

If the hypotenuse is #a#, then use

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

In this case, we get

#3^2+c^2=5^2#, so that

#c^2 = 25-9 = 16# and so,

#c=sqrt16 = 4#.