Answer:
The missing side = 20 feet
Step-by-step explanation:
- This is a right triangle with the two legs of lengths 12 ft. and 16 ft.
- The missing side is the hypotenuse
- By the Pythagorean Theorem
a² + b² = c²
where
c is the hypotenuse
a, b the legs of the right triangle(the shorter sides)
- Given a = 12, b = 16 we get:
12² + 16² = c²
144 + 256 = c²
- Switching sides:
c² = 144 + 256
c² = 400
c = ±√(400)
c = ± 20
- We can discard the value with the negative sign and state that the hypotenuse = 20 feet
- Ans: The missing side = 20 feet
