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 $c$ $c$ , then use

$a^{2} + b^{2} = c^{2}$ $a^2 +b^2=c^2$ to get:

$5^{2} + 3^{2} = c^{2}$ $5^2+3^2=c^2$ , so $c^{2} = 34$ $c^2=34$ abd

$c = \sqrt{34}$ $c=sqrt34$

If the hypotenuse is $a$ $a$ , then use

$b^{2} + c^{2} = a^{2}$ $b^2 +c^2=a^2$ ,

In this case, we get

$3^{2} + c^{2} = 5^{2}$ $3^2+c^2=5^2$ , so that

$c^{2} = 25 - 9 = 16$ $c^2 = 25-9 = 16$ and so,

$c = \sqrt{16} = 4$ $c=sqrt16 = 4$ .