One leg in a right triangle is 5 and the hypotenuse is 13. What is the length of the other leg?

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Answer 1 · 2016-02-23T05:17:19

We can just use simple pythagorean theorem on this problem

We know that a leg is 5 and a hypotenuse is 13, so we plug in

#a^2 + b^2 = c^2# where c is the hypotenuse and a and b are the legs

#5^2 + b^2 = 13^2#

And we solve for b, the missing leg

#25 + b^2 = 169#

#b^2 = 144#

Take the positive square root and we find that

#b = 12#

The length of the other leg is 12