Big Ideas Math: Modeling Real Life, Grade 8
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Big Ideas Math: Modeling Real Life, Grade 8 View details
2. The Pythagorean Theorem
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Exercise 6 Page 386

13

Practice makes perfect
To find the missing side length of the triangle, we will use the Pythagorean Theorem. a^2+b^2=c^2

In the formula, a and b are the legs and c is the hypotenuse of a right triangle. We are given a triangle with a=5 and b=12.

Let's substitute these values into the formula.
a^2+b^2=c^2
5^2+ 12^2=c^2
â–Ľ
Solve for c
25+144=c^2
169=c^2
c^2=169
c=sqrt(169)
c=13
Since a negative side length does not make sense, we only need to consider positive solutions.