Question

Moira said, "If a right triangle has one side with a length of 3 units and one side with a length

Answer 1

If the two sides with length 3 and 4 are the two legs, then the missing side, i.e. the hypotenuse, is indeed 5.

But it could also be the case that 4 is the hypotenuse and 3 is one of the legs. In this case, the missing side is the other leg, so we calculate it using

$\sqrt{4^2-3^2}=\sqrt{16-9}=\sqrt{7}$

So, a right triangle with legs $\sqrt{7}$ and 3 has an hypotenuse of 4.