Question

Why is it difficult to find length of the hypotenuse the same way the length of the legs can be found?

Answer 1

It is difficult to find length that way because you still need that extra step where are apply the Pythagorean Theorem (a^2 + b^2 = c^2, where c is the hypotenuse and a and b are the legs), which could use a lot of useless squaring, when you could do something clever instead.

Answer 2

Answer:

bc the length of the hypotenuse is the sum of the other two legs. thats why the equation is:  a^2(hypotenuse) = b^2  + c^2 (the other two legs)