Question

A right triangle has a side with length 12 in and a hypotenuse with length 20 in. find the length of the missing leg. (round to the nearest hundredth, if needed)

Answer 1

Let the unknown side be "z" inches
Through pythagoras:
${12}^{2} + {z}^{2} = {20}^{2}$
Because the square of the two sides add up to the square of the hypotenuse in a right triangle.

This means that
${z }^{2} = {20}^{2} - {12}^{2}$
${z}^{2} = 400 - 144 = 256$
$z = \sqrt{256} = 16$
So the missing side is 16 inches

Hope this helped