Paul sketches a right triangle with legs of length a and b and a hypotenuse of length h. He writes an equation that relates lengths a, b, and h. Then he writes an expression for the length of the hypotenuse. Which equation does he write?
√a^2 - b^2
√a+b
√a-b
√a^2 + b^2
8 answers
And your answer is?
none of them, unless you meant to type
√(a^2 + b^2)
√(a^2 + b^2)
that's what I meant on the last one, is it right?
Does the answer choice have the parentheses?
No, but I think it is probably supposed to.
Is there a difference between √a^2 + b^2 and √ (a^2 + b^2)
in your text, probably not, since the radical bar extends over the whole expression. Since we can't show that online, it's always best to use the parentheses. Otherwise, the order of operations demands that it be parsed as
(√a^2) + b^2
because powers are done before addition.
(√a^2) + b^2
because powers are done before addition.
ok thank you very much