- #1
Curd
- 78
- 1
something I've been wondering about in an expressable format...
I've had thoughts about this before but this is the first time that I've been presented with such an ideal situation to express it (i couldn't figure out how to ask this question before, and still am not able to fully tie it into the other problems I've noticed it in).
anyway, i was looking at this problem, and i noticed that both me and the book came up with the same hypotenuse, but we came up with wildly different answers for what the sides measurements were.
i went with the idea that i might as well have both sides even since i have nothing telling me they're not. the book obviously took a different path.
so, i was thinking, are there not an infinite number of possible combinations for the lengths of the two unknown sides?
and therefore is not the accurate answer a^2 + b^2 = 169?
also, how exactly do you calculate all the possible answers? and how do you find the range in which those answers will fall?
and also there's the issue of this same type of situation effecting the answers to other problems.
you may notice that they wrote their solution equation differently from the way i wrote mine and of course received a particular restricted answer because of it. which means that there are any number of ways to write this equation, so long as those ways fit into a certain restricted pattern, and that each of those way will get you a different answer that generates the same hypotenuse.
and on top of that, how does this issue effect the calculation of other problems? i recall thinking some of these problems were rather arbitrarily solved... perhaps i will come up with a good example of this in the future.
anyway, what is the most productive manner by which to view this issue?
I've had thoughts about this before but this is the first time that I've been presented with such an ideal situation to express it (i couldn't figure out how to ask this question before, and still am not able to fully tie it into the other problems I've noticed it in).
anyway, i was looking at this problem, and i noticed that both me and the book came up with the same hypotenuse, but we came up with wildly different answers for what the sides measurements were.
i went with the idea that i might as well have both sides even since i have nothing telling me they're not. the book obviously took a different path.
so, i was thinking, are there not an infinite number of possible combinations for the lengths of the two unknown sides?
and therefore is not the accurate answer a^2 + b^2 = 169?
also, how exactly do you calculate all the possible answers? and how do you find the range in which those answers will fall?
and also there's the issue of this same type of situation effecting the answers to other problems.
you may notice that they wrote their solution equation differently from the way i wrote mine and of course received a particular restricted answer because of it. which means that there are any number of ways to write this equation, so long as those ways fit into a certain restricted pattern, and that each of those way will get you a different answer that generates the same hypotenuse.
and on top of that, how does this issue effect the calculation of other problems? i recall thinking some of these problems were rather arbitrarily solved... perhaps i will come up with a good example of this in the future.
anyway, what is the most productive manner by which to view this issue?