Asked by G

Use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the missing length in the right triangle.
17cm
23cm

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
The Pythagorean Theorem: a^2 + b^2 = c^2 (c = hypotenuse).

Case 1 (23 is hypotenuse, 17 is a leg):
b^2 = 23^2 − 17^2 = 529 − 289 = 240
b = √240 = 4√15 ≈ 15.49 cm

Case 2 (17 and 23 are the legs):
c = √(17^2 + 23^2) = √818 ≈ 28.61 cm

Most likely the figure has 23 as the hypotenuse, so the missing length is 4√15 cm (≈15.49 cm).