Question

What is the measure of one leg of a right triangle if the other leg measures 12 and the hypotenuse measures 20?

Answer 1

`16`

Explanation:

if `c` is the hypotenuse and the two legs are `a" & "b` then by Pythagoras' theorem

`c^2=a^2+b^2`

`:. 20^2=a^2+1262`

`400=a^2+144`

`a^2=400-144=256`

`:.a=sqrt256=16`