Quilt squares are cut on the diagonal to form triangular quilt pieces. the hypotenuse of the resulting triangles is 26 inches long. what is the side length of each piece?

The pythagorean theorem is a^2 + b^2 = c^2, with c^2 being the hypotenuse (or longest side).

So a^2 + b^2 = 26

Since we're dealing with a triangle that was cut from a square, we also know that sides a and b are the same length. So, we can simplify our equation:

2a^2 = 26

Next, try to get a by itself, first by dividing both sides by 2 and then taking the square root of both sides:

a^2 = 13
a = the square root of 13

So, the side length of each piece will be the square root of 13 (approximately 3.5 inches).