Question

You want to divide a square piece of paper into two equivalent triangles. If the square measures 20 cm on each side, what will the third side of each triangle measure?

8.9 cm
20 cm
28.3 cm
40 cm

Answer 1

You will be creating a 45-45-90 triangle in which the hypotenuse is the leg multiplied by the square root of 2

Answer 2

You will have two isosceles right triangles after the fold. The hypotenuse is the longest side of a right triangle. In the case of the 45-45-90 triangle, the hypotenuse is square root of 2 times a leg of the triangle. So, 20 times square root of 2 = 28.3 cm --> answer approximate.

You can also solve for the length by solving the equation x^ + x^2 = 20^2.