Question

The length of one leg of a right triangle is 20 ft and the length of the hypotenuse is 52 ft. What is the length of the other leg?
A. 32.0 feet
B. 70.8 feet
C. 5.7 feet
D. 48.0 feet

Answer 1

We will apply Pythagoras theorem in a right triangle, which states

" Consider a right triangle with hypotenuse 'h' and two legs say 'b' and 'p'. Pythagoras theorem states that the square of hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the square of both the legs of a triangle".

Mathematically, $h^{2}=b^{2}+p^{2}$ (Equation 1)

Length of hypotenuse (h)= 52 feet

Length of one leg (let b )= 20 feet

We need to calculate the length of another leg that is 'p'

Using Equation 1,

$h^{2}=b^{2}+p^{2}$

Substituting the values, we get

$(52)^{2}=(20)^{2}+p^{2}$

$2704 = 400+p^{2}$

$p^{2}=2304$

$p=\sqrt{2304}$

p = 48 feet

Therefore, Option D is the correct answer.