Each triangle is a 30-60-90 triangle, and the hypotenuse of one triangle is the longer leg of an adjacent triangle. the hypotenuse of the larger triangle is 16 centimeters. what is the number of centimeters in the length of the longer leg of the smaller triangle?

The triangle 30°-60°-90° is a special triangle.

Whatever the length of the hypotenuse is, the length of the side opposite to the angle with measure  30° is half of the length of the side opposite 60°.

In our triangle, the sides are x-2x-16

We can apply the Pythagorean theorem:







so x= (cm)

the length of the other leg is 2x =14.32 (cm)

7.16, 14.32