An isosceles right triangle has a hypotenuse of length 26. What is the length of each leg?

Question

I need help with this basic question which I don't understand at all.

 

Answer 1

An isosceles right triangle has 2 equal sides and 2 equal angles.

Therefore, using Pythagorean's Thereom:   

 

a² + a² = c²     where: c is the hypotenuse = 26

                                 a is each side or leg length

 

2*a² = 26²

 

a = √[(26²)/2] = 26/√2 = 13√2    or 18.3848