Question

1. Determine the missing length in the following right triangle. Round to thenearest tenth.

Answer 1

We can apply Pythagorean theorem to the given right triangle:

$x^2+16^2=20^2$

which gives

$x^2+256=400$

If we move +256 to the right hand side, we get

$\begin{gathered} x^2=400-256 \\ \text{then} \\ x^2=144 \end{gathered}$

Finally, x is given by

$x=\sqrt[]{144}$

then, the answer is x= 12