Need help solving a triangle

[DWinand]

Hello. I'm probably not you're typical user of this message board. I'm a mom who's trying to make a poncho out of fleece for my daughter. To do this I need to make a square (or folded in half would be an isoceles right triangle I believe). I have not done trig for 11 years and completely forget how it's done. This should be an easy one though. The hypotenuse is 52" and the angle opposite the hypotenuse is 90 degrees. The other 2 angles are 45 degrees. I need to know the length of the other 2 sides. They would be the same. Then I'll know the length all four sides of the square should be for my poncho. Thank you so much to anyone that can help!!

DWinand

 

[Guest]

Hoooorahhh for triangles! I love these things...unfortunately I'm rusty too, and I'm a senoir in Highschool haha.
Anyways I think th answer is 37.76955262"
I'm stressing the "I think part"

 

[wjm11]

The hypotenuse is 52" and the angle opposite the hypotenuse is 90 degrees. The other 2 angles are 45 degrees. I need to know the length of the other 2 sides.

Hi, DW,

Captanblue misread a digit on his calculator, I believe. The answer is

52/sqrt2 = 36.77 inches (not 37.77")

You can check this with the Pythagorean theorem if you like:

a^2 + b^2 = c^2

 

[Guest]

actually I switched my numbers arounds...my bad, I sadi I was rusty.

 

[tkhunny]

Word of warning: Make sure you measure BOTH diagonals. Slightly squashed squares are very irritating if they should be perfectly square. It will mess up your whole pattern.

 

[DWinand]

Thank you!

Thank you everyone for your help! I do have a fancy calculator to figure that kind of stuff out, but the battery died on it a few months ago and I never got it replaced!

I appreciate your help!

Dana