Hypotenuse

What is Hypotenuse?

•  Hypotenuse is the longest side of the triangle.

•  Hypotenuse is the side opposite the right angle in a right angled triangle. 

Determine the Hypotenuse

From this figure, we can see that c is the side opposite right angle.

So,  C = HYPOTENUSE 



Calculate the Hypotenuse


Look at the triangle below.

We want to find the length of the hypotenuse (h).

 Pythagoras' Theorem tells us:

 The square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the two shorter sides.
In this case, this means that h² is equal to 5² + 12².

So the length of the hypotenuse (h) can be worked out as follows:

h² = 5² + 12²    ( work out the squares of the two shorter side )
h² = 25 + 144   (add the squares of the two shorter sides together )
h² = 169           ( square root both sides to find the value of h)
h  = 13

We can now see that the length of the hypotenuse (h) is 13m.