Introduction

In a right-angled triangle, the hypotenuse is the longest side, opposite the right angle. The length of the hypotenuse can be calculated using the well-known Pythagorean Theorem, which states that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. This is represented as:

c² = a² + b²

Where c is the length of the hypotenuse, and a and b are the lengths of the other two sides of the triangle.

Objective

The objective of this program is to calculate the length of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle when the lengths of the other two sides are given. This is done using the Pythagorean Theorem formula.

Python Code

# Python program to calculate the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle

import math

# Function to calculate the hypotenuse
def calculate_hypotenuse(a, b):
    # Applying Pythagorean theorem: c = sqrt(a^2 + b^2)
    c = math.sqrt(a**2 + b**2)
    return c

# Input: length of sides a and b
side_a = float(input("Enter the length of side a: "))
side_b = float(input("Enter the length of side b: "))

# Calculate hypotenuse
hypotenuse = calculate_hypotenuse(side_a, side_b)

# Output the result
print(f"The length of the hypotenuse is: {hypotenuse}")

Explanation of Program Structure

The program is structured as follows:

• Importing the math module: The math module is imported to access the sqrt() function, which computes the square root of a number.
• Function definition: A function called calculate_hypotenuse() is defined, which takes two arguments: the lengths of the two sides of the right-angled triangle. It calculates the hypotenuse using the Pythagorean theorem formula and returns the result.
• User input: The program prompts the user to input the lengths of the two sides a and b. These values are converted to floating-point numbers to allow for decimal inputs.
• Hypotenuse calculation: The function is called with the user’s inputs to calculate the hypotenuse length.
• Output: Finally, the program prints out the calculated hypotenuse length to the user.

How to Run the Program

To run the program, follow these steps:

1. Ensure that you have Python installed on your system. If not, download and install Python from python.org.
2. Save the program as a Python file with the extension .py (for example, calculate_hypotenuse.py).
3. Open your terminal or command prompt.
4. Navigate to the folder where the Python file is located.
5. Run the program by typing python calculate_hypotenuse.py and pressing Enter.
6. Enter the values for the lengths of sides a and b when prompted, and the program will output the length of the hypotenuse.