Jerrod found the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle with legs that are 3 ft and 1 ft. Is his answer correct?

c2=32+12

c2=9+1

c2=8

c=8–√

(1 point)
Responses

No, he subtracted 1 and 9 instead of adding.
No, he subtracted 1 and 9 instead of adding.

No, he set up the Pythagorean theorem incorrectly.
No, he set up the Pythagorean theorem incorrectly.

No, he made an error finding the square root.
No, he made an error finding the square root.

Yes, he correctly calculated the length of the hypotenuse.
Yes, he correctly calculated the length of the hypotenuse.

1 answer

Let's analyze Jerrod's calculations step by step using the Pythagorean theorem, which states that for a right triangle with legs of length \( a \) and \( b \), and hypotenuse \( c \):

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

In this case, the legs of the triangle are 3 ft and 1 ft:

\[ c^2 = 3^2 + 1^2 \]

Calculating the squares:

\[ c^2 = 9 + 1 \]

This simplifies to:

\[ c^2 = 10 \]

Now, to find \( c \), we take the square root:

\[ c = \sqrt{10} \]

Now, let's look at Jerrod's steps:

  1. He wrote \( c^2 = 3^2 + 1^2 \).
  2. He incorrectly wrote \( c^2 = 9 + 1 \).
  3. Then, he made an incorrect statement that \( c^2 = 8 \) (which is wrong; it should be 10).
  4. Finally, he wrote \( c = 8 - \sqrt{\) (this seems like a typographical error).

Based on this analysis, Jerrod made multiple mistakes:

  • He did not calculate the correct sum of the squares correctly (he should have gotten 10, but said 8).
  • He also did not apply the square root correctly.

Thus, the correct response is: No, he set up the Pythagorean theorem incorrectly.