Outlining Operational Steps

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Outlining Operational Steps Example:

Problem: Given the right triangle displayed below, find the length of the remaining side.

1. I know that because it is a right triangle, I can use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the value of the third side.
2. The side opposite the right angle is c; how I name the other two sides really doesn't matter. I'll plug the values into the Theorem, and solve:
   • 80² = 48² + b²
   • I’ll find the value of the length of each side squared: 6400 = 2304 + b²
   • I need to get the variable by itself, so I’ll do the opposite operation (subtraction) on the other side of the equal sign: 6400-2304 = b²
   • Now I know b²= 4096, so I just need to find the square root of 4096
   • The square root of 4096 is 64, so the length of the third side is 64