Me. only answer if you know. i will make you the brainliest.
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the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is 145 units. the length of one leg of the triangle is 144 units. mike wrote the following step to find the length of the unknown leg: length of the unknown leg = 1452 − 1442 = 21,025 − 20,736 = 289 units which statement best explains whether mike's step is correct or incorrect? a. it is incorrect because the length of the unknown side is the square root of 289.
b. it is incorrect because the length of the unknown side is the square root of 41,761.
c. it is correct because the length of the unknown side is the difference of the lengths of the sides.
d. it is correct because the length of the unknown side is the difference of the squares of the sides.

A Is probably correct but i'm not sure. Most likely answer.

Let's first focus on actually solving this problem.

Remember that the hypo is the longest side of any right triangle.  Here it's 145 units.  One leg is of length 144.  Note that this is highly unusual, altho possible.  Let's apply the Pythagorean Theorem to this triangle to determine the length of the 2nd leg.

(hypotenuse)^2 = (long leg length)^2 + (short leg length)^2

Therefore,
       
          145^2 =            144^2               +       x^2
or
           21025     =       20736              +         x^2
 or
             289  =                                               x^2

What is the square root of 289?  The correct answer is the length of the shorter leg of this triangle.

Now compare these figures to those given in the original problem statement.  Look for subtle differences in the wording. 

Which statement, A, B, C or D, best explains why Mike's first step is correct or incorrect?