McGraw Hill Integrated II, 2012
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McGraw Hill Integrated II, 2012 View details
3. Special Right Triangles
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Exercise 68 Page 648

2.6

Practice makes perfect
To find the missing side 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=3sqrt(2), b=x, and c=5.

Let's substitute these values into the formula and solve for x.
a^2+b^2=c^2
( 3sqrt(2))^2+ x^2= 5^2
Solve for x
3^2(sqrt(2))^2+x^2=5^2
3^2(2)+x^2=5^2
9(2)+x^2=25
18+x^2=25
x^2=7
x=sqrt(7)
x=2.64575...
x≈ 2.6
Since a negative side length does not make sense, we only need to consider positive solutions.