One of the legs of a right triangle measures 7 cm and the other leg measures 15 cm. Find the measure of the hypotenuse. If necessary, round to the nearest tenth.

1 answer

To find the measure of the hypotenuse of a right triangle with legs measuring 7 cm and 15 cm, you can use the Pythagorean theorem, which states:

\[ c^2 = a^2 + b^2 \]

where \( c \) is the hypotenuse, and \( a \) and \( b \) are the lengths of the legs. In this case, let \( a = 7 \) cm and \( b = 15 \) cm.

Now, plug in the values:

\[ c^2 = 7^2 + 15^2 \] \[ c^2 = 49 + 225 \] \[ c^2 = 274 \]

Next, take the square root of both sides to find \( c \):

\[ c = \sqrt{274} \]

Calculating that gives:

\[ c \approx 16.5529 \]

Rounding to the nearest tenth, the measure of the hypotenuse is:

\[ \boxed{16.6} \text{ cm} \]