Question

Three streets intersect to form a right triangle as shown below. The parts of streets that make up the legs of this triangle are 42 yd. Long and 56 yd. Long. How long is the third side of the triangle formed by the three streets?

Answer 1

Answer:

70 yd.

Step-by-step explanation:

The three streets at the intersection form a right triangle.

For a right triangle, the length of the longest side (called hypothenuse) is given by Pythagorean's theorem:

$h=\sqrt{x^2+y^2}$

where

x is the length of the 1st side

y is the length of the 2nd side

h is the length of the hypothenuse

Here we want to find the hypothenuse.

We have:

x = 42 yd (length of the 1st side)

y = 56 yd (length of the 2nd side)

Substituting, we find h:

$h=\sqrt{42^2+56^2}=70 yd$