The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 8, the length of one leg of the right triangle is 6, what is the length of the missing leg?

Answer 1

Knowing a² + b² = c², where a and b are the legs and c is the hypotenuse.

Let a = 6 and c = 8

It does not matter if a or b equals 6 since they are both legs.

6² + b² = 8²

36 + b² = 64

Get the variable alone to solve for b by adding the opposite to both sides:

b² = 64 - 36

b² = 28

Take the square root of both sides: approximately 5.3

Or, find the largest perfect square of 28 which is 4 times 7. Since 7 is not a perfect square and 4 is because 2×2 makes 4, your other possible answer is 2 times the square root of 7.