How do you use the Pythagorean Theorem to determine if the three numbers could be the measures of the sides of a right triangle assuming that the largest is the hypotenuse: 72, 17, 19?
1 Answer
Apr 3, 2016
If you arrange the length of the sides in non-decreasing order, such as
#c^2 = a^2 + b^2#
is true.
For this case
#a = 17# #b = 19# #c = 72#
Plugging in, the left hand side gives
#c^2 = 72^2#
#= 5184#
The right hand side gives
#a^2 + b^2 = 17^2 + 19^2#
#= 289 + 361#
#= 650 != 5184#
Since the equality does not hold, there is no right-angle triangle with sides measuring 17, 19 and 72.
