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Help your students prepare for their Maths GCSE with this free Pythagoras Theorem worksheet of 43 questions and answers
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Pythagoras Theorem states that, in a right angled triangle abc, the square of the length of the hypotenuse (or longest side) c is equal to the sum of the squares of the lengths of the two shorter sides of the triangle, a and b. Its algebraic formula is a2+b2=c2. It is sometimes called the Pythagorean Theorem.
This result can be used to find the length of a missing side of a right angle triangle when the other two are known.
To find the length of the hypotenuse, square the lengths of the sides a and b, and add them. Finally, square root to find the length of the unknown side. To find the length of a missing shorter side (say a), square b and c. We then proceed by subtracting the square of b from the square of c, and taking the square root as before.
Square rooting will often result in non-terminating decimals so students should give their final answers to an appropriate number of decimal places or significant figures.
A Pythagorean triple is a set of three integers that satisfies Pythagoras theorem – for example, 3, 4, 5 or 6, 8, 10. It is useful for students to be able to spot these.
There are some common real life applications of Pythagoras that come up in exam questions, such as finding how far up a wall a ladder reaches.
Looking forward, students can then progress to additional geometry worksheets, for example a how to work out perimeter worksheet or an area of compound shapes worksheet.Â
For more teaching and learning support on Geometry our GCSE maths lessons provide step by step support for all GCSE maths concepts.
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