Question

"All three side lengths of the triangle are integers and together form a Pythagorean triple. Find the length of the third side and tell whether it is a leg or the hypotenuse" Question: 40 & 41

Answer 1

So? What length did you find?

Answer 2

40 and 41 are the lengths. And I need to find the third one.

Answer 3

so 40^2+41^2=c^2

Answer 4

But I'm getting a decimal.

Answer 5

It didn't say if 41 or 40 was the hypotenuse or not. Try looking around for it. For example:
41^2=a^2+40^2. Play around with 41 and 40 being a, b, or c in the pythagorean theorem.

Answer 6

It also said to figure out which length is the hypotenuse, which I don't know as well.

Answer 7

Pythagorean Theorem solves for the hypotenuse given two legs.
Just give it a try, if you can't do it I will try it with you.

Answer 8

ty :)

Answer 9

remember that the largest value is always the hypotenuse.

Answer 10

So if there were 2 numbers that had similar values, such as 40 and 41, could it be certain that they are both the legs?

Answer 11

Not unless you knew the third value. The hypotenuse could be something like 57.28.

Answer 12

Okay. Seems reasonable.

Answer 13

41^2 = 1681
40^2 = 1600
difference of 81 = 9^2
as stated above the hypothenuse is the longest side, the largest value