The answer to what the length of the leg would be is 15.
You would do this problem by first writing down your Pythagorean Theorem, which is a^2 + b^2 = c^2.
Since we have our hypotenuse which is c^2 in our equation, we would write or insert the number we have.
So our equation could be that a or b leg equals 20, it doesn’t matter which one.
So we could write, 20^2 + b^2 = 25^2. So we don’t know what b leg is.
First we should figure out what 20^2 is and what 25^2 is.
20^2 is 400 and 25^2 is 625.
Our equation now comes to 400 + b^2 = 625.
Now we take 400 and subtract it from
625 -> 400 + b^2 = 625
-400.
So 625 - 400 comes out to be 225.
Lastly instead of squaring or putting 225 to the second power, we do the opposite.
So instead of squaring 225 we must square root 225. √ 225 .
The square root of √ 225 comes out to be 15.
Answer:
C
Step-by-step explanation:
First I am going to assume that these are both right triangles based off of look and because it is much easier. Without it you have to use law of sines or law of cosines...
So to find x you must first find y which can be done simply by using the pythagorean theorem. This theorem is defined as the sum of the squared legs is equal to the sum of the hypotenuse or x^2 + y^2 = z^2
If we substitute in the known values 16^2 + y^2 = 20^2 and solve for y we get that y = sqrt(20^2 - 16^2), this then simplifies to y = 12
Finding x is much more annoying, the easiest way I can immediately see is to find the upper angles by doing sin(16/20) and then 90 - sin(16/20) since the complementary angle is the one you want. I don't have a calculator or a trig table with me right now but I will tell you that x will be equal to 12 ÷ the inverse cosine of the angle (90degrees - sin(16/20)).
I am pretty sure the answer is D though because we know for sure y = 12 and x has to be greater than y because the hypotenuse must be larger than both legs. It could be E but you won't know unless you do the math for x. So it is either D or E but I would be surprised if a Professor made you do all of the work just to say it doesn't work...