Question

In a certain right triangle, the two sides that are perpendicular to each other are 5.30 m and 7.80 m long. What is the length of the third side of the triangle?

Answer 1

Let's draw an illustration of the right triangle given their sides.

In order to determine the length of the third side, we will use the Pythagorean Theorem.

$c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}$

where "a" and "b" are the sides of the triangle that are perpendicular to each other while "c" is the hypotenuse or the third side.

Let a = 5.30 m and b = 7.80 m. Let's plug this into the formula above.

$c=\sqrt{(5.30m)^2+(7.80m)^2}$

Then, solve for c.

$c=\sqrt{28.09m^2+60.84m^2}$$c=\sqrt{88.93m^2}$$c\approx9.43m$

Therefore, the length of the third side is approximately 9.43 meters.