Right sided triangle

Hey guys

I am trying an exercise in a book I found at the library and it asks me to write a program that reads three values and determines if they could make a right sided triangle.

I have made a fairly good attempt but I think my algorithm is a bit muddled. Can
you help me out.

The code below compiles ok.

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <cmath>

// main function - driver //////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
int main ( void )
{
        double hypotenuse = 0,
                  sideA = 0,
                  sideB = 0,
                  squSideA = 0,
                  squSideB = 0,
                  totalSqu = 0;

        std::cout << "Enter the hypotenuse: ";
        std::cin >> hypotenuse;
        std::cout << "Enter the sizes of the other two sides: ";
        std::cin >> sideA >> sideB;

        // find the square of each side
        squSideA = sqrt ( sideA );
        squSideB = sqrt ( sideB );
       
        // get the total square of both sides
        totalSqu = squSideA + squSideB;

        if ( totalSqu == hypotenuse )
        {
                std::cout << "\nThis could represent a right-sided triangle\n";
        }

        else
        {
                std::cout << "\nThis could not represent a right-sided triangle\n";
        }

    std::cin.get(); // freeze console output window
        std::cin.ignore();

    return 0; // return value from int main
}

---

sqrt is the square root, the exact opposite of the square :) You want something like:

Code:

---

if ((hypotenuse * hypotenuse) == ((sideA * sideA) + (sideB * sideB))) {
  // Woohoo
}

---

edit: This is the Pythagorean Theorem where a^2 + b^2 = c^2, where c is the hypotenuse.

QuantumPete

Thank you QuantumPete - great help. Thanks so much :)

It may also be a good idea to do your double comparison using a delta value or some such, to avoid problem where someone enters 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, and gets the answer that it isn't a triangle, when it in reality is, just that the 0.3 value turned into 0.2999999999 or some such.

--
Mats