Mr. R.’s World of Math

    
Hypotenuse,
Has broken loose!
Going south,
Like a goose…
Now the slide’s,
No fun to ride,
All the children,
Saw and cried!
They liked to slide,
Its longest side!

Hypotenuse,
The longest side,
That made right tri,
Tried to hide,
But those who know,
Will find him fast,
His game of hiding,
Just won’t last,
He’ll be leaning,
On some trees,
Opposite,
90º
Then we’ll fix,
Old playground slide,
So kids can play,
And glide and ride…

The hypotenuse is the longest side of a right triangle.
It is the side that is opposite the 90º angle of the triangle.
The length of the hypotenuse can be found using the Pythagorean theorem,
which states that the squares of the two shorter sides is equal to the square of the hypotenuse.
a2 + b2 = c2

For example, if the sides of a right triangle are 3, and 4,
then 9 + 16 = 25. The length of the third side is the square root of 25 which is 5