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hypotenuse

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hypotenuse

Longest side of a right-angled triangle, opposite the right angle. It is of particular application in Pythagoras' theorem (the square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides), and in trigonometry where the ratios sine and cosine are defined as the ratios opposite/hypotenuse and adjacent/hypotenuse respectively.



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? Mentioned in ? References in periodicals archive
 
If we draw out from the center of the circle to the base of this triangle a vertical line, then the two angles formed on both sides of this vertical line will be right-angled, and the [original] triangle, due to this drawn out vertical line, will be halved into two right-angled triangles, and the two lines falling on the two extremities [of the locus of contact] will become hypotenuses of these two right-angled triangles, and the vertical line becomes a hypotenuse of [i.
The resulting new hypotenuse evidently is larger than the hypotenuse for the right angle.
Diaconis speculates that Archimedes might have been using the Stomachion to construct a pictorial proof of some geometric result such as the Pythagorean theorem, the famous equation relating the lengths of the two shorter sides of a right triangle and the length of the hypotenuse.
 
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