In any triangle, the longest side is always opposite to the largest angle.
In this case, the longest the side is the side opposed to 80°
The lengths of the boards are 6 cm and 8 cm.
The boards make a right angle.
Therefore the string connecting the boards is the hypotenuse of a right triangle (shown n the figure).
By the Pythagorean theorem,
c² = 6² + 8² = 100
c = 10 cm
Answer: c = 10 cm
Explanatory variable, or the independent variable. The two are interchangeable, but explanatory is more likely to be used in statistics, and independent variable is used practically everywhere else.