Question

What is the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle if the two other sides are of lengths 8 and 16?

Answer 1

`c = 8sqrt5` or about `17.89`

Explanation:

The Pythagorean Theorem is:

where `a` and `b` are the side lengths and `c` is the hypotenuse.

In this question, we have the side lengths of `8` and `16`, we we can plug them into the Pythagorean Theorem and solve for the hypotenuse:
`c^2 = 8^2 + 16^2`

Simplify:
`c^2 = 64 + 256`

`c^2 = 320`

Take the square root of both sides:
`c = sqrt320`

`c = sqrt(64 * 5)`

`c = 8sqrt5` or about `17.89` (rounded to nearest hundredth's place)

Hope this helps!