The area of a right-angled triangle with hypotenuse 17 cm and one side being 8 cm shall be:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → 60 cm2
In a right-angled triangle the two sides that form the right angle are the base and the height, and by Pythagoras’ theorem the square of the hypotenuse is the sum of their squares. The missing side is found first, then the area.
Other side \(=\sqrt{17^2-8^2}=\sqrt{289-64}=\sqrt{225}=15\) cm
Area \(\displaystyle =\frac{1}{2}\times\text{base}\times\text{height}=\frac{1}{2}\times8\times15=60\) cm2