Why is the Pythagorean Theorem useful?
The PT can be used in figuring out 1 side of a right triangle if two sides are known. The Theorem is The square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the two sides. Thus if you know both legs, you can calc the hypotenuse. If you know the hypotenuse and 1 leg, you can calc the other leg. A simple example using whole numbers: If one leg is 3, the other 4, then the hypotenuse is 5. The square of the 3 is 9, of 4 is 16 and the hypotenuse square is 25 9 plus 16 equals 25. If you have a calculator you can come up with 2 other examples easily. For instance, if one side is 8 then its square is 64. If the other side is 7, then its square is 49. Now add the squares. Now use a calculator to take the square root of that added number. For instance if the added number were 100, the square root of 100 is ten.
