Calculating the Hypotenuse in PHP

The hypotenuse is the longest side of a right triangle. A right triangle is a triangle with one of the angles being a right angle (90 degrees.) The hypotenuse is the side that is directly opposite of this 90 degree angle. In the diagram above, the hypotenuse is c, the red line.

According to the pythagorean theorem: a²+b²=c². So let's plug in some values for a, b and c.

If a is 3 and b is 4 then a² is 9 and b² is 16. 9+16 = 25, so c² =25. To to find c, we take the square root of 25, which is 5. So we conclude that c=5.