Pythagoras.

Pythagoras In A Right Angled Triangle

The Key Thing To Remeber When Doing Pythagoras Theorem Is That A²+B²=C². You Use This In Working Out An Unknown Length On A Side Of A Right Angled Triangle, We Call The Unknown Side C². For Example, We Might Have A Question Showing A Right Angled Triangle With One Side 10cm, Another side 9.5cm And We Are Told To Work Out the Length, Which In This Case Is the Longer Side. We Call This Side The Hypotenuse. To Work This Out We Do This Calculation:

A²+B²=C²

10²+9.5²=C²

10²+9.5²=190.25

We Then Square Root 190.25 Using The Tick Like Arrow On A Scientific Calculator.

10²+9.5²=13.79²

13.79²=C

10cm+9.5cm=13.79cm

This Means That The Length Of The Longest Side Is 13.79cm.

What If The Longest Side Isn't The One Your Trying To Work Out?

This Is Simply Over Come By Just Slightly Changing The Equation! For Example A Right Angled Triangle, One Side 4cm, We Call That A, The Longest Side 6cm, We Call That C Still And B We Are Trying To Work Out. Instead Of The Above Equation You'd Do:

A²+B²=C²

4²+B²=6²

16+B²=36

B²=36-16

B²=20

Then Square Root 20:

B=4.47cm

There for The Side B Is 4.47cm Long.