The Pythagorean Theorem is basically a way to find the side of a right triangle from the other two sides.
Take a look at this triangle labeled, a, b, c. (attachment)
Side a and b are called the legs. The largest side, c is called the hypotenuse.
In order to find a side, we have to use the formula…
Let’s do an example.
Consider the following triangle.
(attachment)
We want to find side c, which is actually the hypotenuse as it is unknown.
In order to find the missing side, we have to use the formula or the Pythagorean theorem. We substitute our values into a and b, while leaving the c-side as it is because that is what we are trying to find.
[Math Processing Error]
What does 13=c mean? It means that the missing side, c, from the triangle above is 13.