An isosceles right triangle has legs that are each 4cm. What is the length of the hypotenuse?

2 Answers
Nov 14, 2015

c=32

Explanation:

We will use the Pythagorean Theorem for this problem.

We know that each leg is 4cm. We can plug those in for a and b, to find our hypotenuse, c.

42+42=c2
16+16=c2
32=c2
c=32

Nov 14, 2015

42cm

Explanation:

By the Pythagorean theorem, the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of it's legs. That is, for a right triangle with legs a and b and hypotenuse c
a2+b2=c2

In this case, we have a=b=4cm, thus

c2=(4cm)2+(4cm)2=32cm2

c=32cm2=162cm=42cm