Question

The Pythagorean triple 5, 12, 13 represents the lengths of the sides of a right triangle. Find the length of the altitude to the hypotenuse.

Answer 1

The altitude of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is the geometric mean of the legs.

The geometric mean in this case is just the square root of the product of the legs, mathematically:

a=√(xy)  in this case

a=√(5*12)

a=√60 units

a≈7.75 units to the nearest hundredth