Solving Right Triangles|Please Help!

Question

Find the measure of side C. Round your response to the nearest hundredth.

Image Link - https://ibb.co/MBKK9FG

Answer 1

Hi Candi!

From the provided image, the triangle looks like a right triangle with a 90 degree angle between the bottom edge and vertical edge. We can use this information to our advantage by applying the Pythagorean theorem.

Only when there's a right angle measuring exactly 90 degrees, we can square the length of the bottom edge (8 x 8 = 64) and square the edge of the vertical edge (7 x 7 = 49). Then we add 64 + 49 = 113.

So far, so good. But there's one final step: since we squared the lengths of both edges prior to adding, we have to "reverse" this operation for the hypotenuse (the diagonal edge C). So we take the square root of 133 which comes to 10.6301458... Obviously we don't need all those digits, only the tenths and hundredths place.

Hope this helps!