The longer leg of a 30°-60°-90° triangle is 6. What is the length of the hypotenuse?

Question

A) 2 square root 3

B) 3 square root 2

C)4 square root 3

D)12

Answer 1

There's two ways to do this problem algebraically or trigonometrically.

Algebraically/geometrically

The ratios of the sides of a 30/60/90 tri. are x, x√3, 2x (short leg, long leg, hyp). Therefore, if the long leg is 6 'units'. then 6 = x√3. x = 6√3.

The hyp is 2x then the hypotenuse is 2(6√3) = 12√3, rationalizing is 12√3/3 = 4√3

Using Trig.

We can use sinx = y/r = opp/hyp. The long leg of 6 is opposite 60 degrees (pi/3).

Therefore, sin(pi/3) = 6/r =

r = 6/sin(pi/3) = 6/(√3/2) = 12/√3, when you rationalize you get 12√3/3 = 4√3