A right triangle has an area of 60 and a base of 15 What is the length of the hypotenuse ?

Question

I am not sure what you want here. Will you please advise me ?

Answer 1

This is a two step problem.

 

First, you'll need to find the height of the triangle. 

 

A = ½bh - or -

60 = ½(15)h

h = 8

 

Then, since it's a right triangle, you'll want to use Pythagoras Theorem to find the hypotenuse.

 

a² + b² = c² , where a and b are your base and height you found in the first part.

 

8² + 15² = c²

 

64 + 225 = c²

289 = c²

 

c = 17

Answer 2

Sharon, let's draw a picture of what we have.  How do we find the area of a triangle?  1/2 b x h, right?

 

Since we have a right triangle, then the 2nd arm is the height!  We have that 60 = 1/2 (15 x h)

 

Can you solve from here?