Hi, my name is Rathan and I am in a serious pickle! I need to the distance from my house to the library but I only know the distance from my house to the library and the distance from my library to the school and that the triangle is a right triangle. Oh what shall I do?!!
Rathan's Home
5 mi
???
School
12 mi
Library
Wait! We can use the Pythagorean theorem that I learned in school to figure this out. The Pythagorean theorem states that in a right triangle, "c^2, the longest side, =a^2+b^2, the other two sides of the triangle(order does not matter for a and b). So, now we can subsitute 5 and 12 as and b in the equation and solve for the answer because we know that c is the distance we are trying to find as it is the longest length of the triangle.
Rathan's Home
a=5 mi
c=???
School
b=12 mi
Library
After we substitute we get c^2=5^2+12^2. We simplify the 5^2 and 12^2 to get c^2=25+144.Then we add, to get c^2=169. Finally, we have to square root on both sides to get rid of the exponent of 2 which leaves us with c=sqrt(169) which is 13. Now we can go to the library!!!