The Pythagorean Theorem formula is listed below. It can only be applied to right triangles.
(side1)^2 + (side2)^2 = (hypotenuse)^2
Since we are given that the base is 8cm, we know that the side of one triangle is 4cm. We are also given that the hypotenuse is 8cm. The height of the cone will be one of the short sides. If we plug these numbers into the formula, we get the following...
4^2 + height^2 = 8^2
If we solve for height, we get the following...
height = sqrt(8^2 - 4^2) = sqrt(64 - 16) = sqrt(48)
Since we are only asked for what is inside the square root, our answer is 48.
