Question

Triangle ABC is a right triangle. The length of one of the legs is 12 centimeters, and the length of the hypotenuse is 20 centimeters. What is the length of the other leg?​

Answer 1

Answer:

The other leg is 16 cm long.

Explanation:

Use the Pythagorean theorem:

$c^2=a^2+b^2$,

where:

$c$ is the hypotenuse, and $a$ and $b$ are the other two sides (legs).

Let $a=12$ $cm$

Rearrange the equation to isolate $b^2$. Plug in the values for $a$ and $c$, and solve.

$b^2=c^2-a^2$

$b2=(20 cm)^2-(12 cm)^2$

Simplify.

$b^2=400 cm^2-144cm^2$

$b^2=256 cm^2$

Take the square root of both sides.

$b=\sqrt{256cm^2}$

Simplify.

$b=16$ $cm$

Answer 2

Answer: 16 centimeters

Step-by-step explanation:

    We will use the Pythagorean theorem to solve. The c variable is the hypotenuse, the a and b variables are the legs.

a² + b² = c²

12² + b² = 20²

144 + b² = 400

b² = 256

b = $\sqrt{256}$

b = 16

          The length of the other leg is 16 centimeters.