+0  
 
0
3952
2
avatar+1832 

 

A median of a triangle is a line segment from a vertex of a triangle to the midpoint of the opposite side of the triangle. The medians to the legs of a certain right triangle have lengths 13 and 19. What is the length of the hypotenuse of the triangle?

 Nov 14, 2015

Best Answer 

 #1
avatar+33603 
+15

My interpretation is as follows:

 

medians

 Nov 15, 2015
 #1
avatar+33603 
+15
Best Answer

My interpretation is as follows:

 

medians

Alan Nov 15, 2015
 #2
avatar+128079 
+10

Let L1 be the length of one of the legs and L2 be the lentgh of the other.......and by the Pythagorean Theorem ,we have that

 

[L1]^2 + [(1/2)L2] ^2 = 19^2     and

 

[L2]^2 + [(1/2)L1]^2  = 13^2   simplify

 

 

L1^2 + (1/4)L2^2  = 361     (1)

L2^2 + (1/4)L1^2  = 169     (2)

 

Rearranging (1),we  have

 

L1^2  = 361  - (1/4)L2^2   (3)    and subbing this into (2),we have

 

L2^2 +(1/4)[ 361 - (1/4)L2^2 ] = 169     multiply through by 16

 

16L2^2 + 4*361 - L2^2  = 2704

 

15L2^2  = 2704 - 4*361 

 

15L2^2 = 1260     divide by 15

 

L2^2 = 84   →  L2 = 2sqrt(21)

 

And using (3), we have

 

L1^2 = 361 - (1/4)L2^2

 

L1^2 = 361 - (1/4)84

 

L1^2  = 361 - 21

 

L1^2  = 340  →  L1 = 2sqrt(85)

 

So....the hypotenuse =  sqrt (84 + 340) =  sqrt (424) = 2sqrt (106)

 

 

 

cool cool cool

 Nov 15, 2015

2 Online Users

avatar
avatar