What is Pythagorean theorem?
The theory of the PT is that you can find the missing side to a right triangle. This only applies to right triangles, and no other types of triangles. It is the thought that if "a" & "b" are the two legs of the triangle and "c" is ALWAYS the hypotenuse (longest side and opposite the largest angle), then you can find the missing side lengths. For instance, if you have a right triangle where a=3, b=4, and you don't know "c", then you use PT. PT is written as a^2+ b^2 = c^2. Any variable with "^2" means the squared power. Going back to the problem two sentences ago, if a=3, b=4, then we need to find c by using PT: 3^2+4^2=c^2. 3 squared is 9, and 4 squared is 16 and those two numbers should equal C^2. 9+16=25, so now we have 25=C^2 (c squared). To find C by itself and get rid of the squared power, we must take the square root of both sides (because a squared power and square root are inverse (opposite) operations of each other)). If we do this, the square root of C squared is just C now, and the square root of 25 is 5. Now we know that 5 is our hypotenuse.