Question

When finding the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle, why might you approximate the answer?

Answer 1

If the square root is not a perfect square, then an approximation of the root often makes more sense in the context of the problem. For real-world problems, you would want an approximation, so you have an estimate of the length you are looking at.

Answer 2

You would approximate because the hypotenuse might not be a perfect square