The Pythagorean Theorem.

[Hailey and Oliver]

  I was doing some basic trig(sin cos and tan)  and realized that i didn't understand the Pythagorean Theorem that well.  So i looked it up and i still didn't  understand it that well.  Are you supposed to square the legs of the triangle and add that and then that is the hypotenuse?  Or do you square the legs and add and then find the square root of that and that is the hypotenuse?  I realize that this is more related to Physics than anything, and math, but please help!!

[F, Calla & Luca]

Wish I could but I have done that in decades. No doubt some math wizards are on DK but I don't know if they are here in the science group. OK, I just looked it up and it's the old a squared plus b squared equal c squared. So yo take the length of the first side , say 2 and square it equals 4. Then you add the the square of the second side , say 3 equals 9.  And you get the square of the hypoteneuse  equals 14. The length is the square root of 14 which is about 3.74. Thank goodness for the internet.

[Leslie and Halas]

It is A squared plus B squared equals C squared, but it only applies to a triangle with a right angle. A and B are the sides making the right angle.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Hailey the internet is your friend and you can look up just about anything there. Wikipedia is one of my favorite sites.

[Jen, Lachlan, and Declan]

Not sure if I could possibly explain it better than F, but here's a great link with examples (I used this site a LOT in college): http://www.mathsisfun.com/pythagoras.html

[F, Calla & Luca]

Great examples.

[Leslie and Halas]

I kind of miss real math. I mostly just add and subtract now.

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

Quick summary - in a right triangle where the sides (legs) forming the right angle are a and b then the side(leg) opposite the right angle is the c, called the hypoteneuse. a (squared) plua b (squared) equal c (squared).  Therefore c equals the square root of [ (a x a) +(b x b)]

That ol' Pythagorus must of had a lot of time on his hands!

 

[Adina P]

I used the PT to hang this photo :-)

Only you have to imagine that there are two right angle triangles back to back that create the bigger triangle.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Gee, I'd thought it was easier to put up the hanger with two hooks, or whatever, equidistant from either end of the top of the frame. Same results. Nice photo.