To find the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle with legs that are both 12 cm, you can use the Pythagorean theorem:
\[ c = \sqrt{a^2 + b^2} \]
where \(c\) is the length of the hypotenuse, and \(a\) and \(b\) are the lengths of the legs.
In this case, both \(a\) and \(b\) are 12 cm:
\[ c = \sqrt{12^2 + 12^2} = \sqrt{144 + 144} = \sqrt{288} \]
Calculating \(\sqrt{288}\):
\[ \sqrt{288} \approx 16.97 \]
So, the length of the hypotenuse is approximately 16.97 cm when rounded to the nearest hundredth.
The correct response is:
16.97