Actually, the answer is not A, if you're saying A is the first choice above. That's incorrect. You will need to use the Geometric mean for right triangles here to figure out what the value of a is. We will use this form: [tex] \frac{YZ}{WZ} = \frac{WZ}{XZ} [/tex]. We have a value for YZ of 3; side a is XZ. That means in order to solve this we need WZ, which we can find using pythagorean's theorem. 3^2 + 4^2 = c^2 and 9 + 16 = c^2 and c = 5. Now we fill in accordingly: [tex] \frac{3}{5}= \frac{5}{XZ} [/tex]. Cross-multiply to get 3XZ=25 and side XZ is [tex] \frac{25}{3} [/tex]. XZ is 25/3 and YZ is 3, so 25/3 - 3 = XY. That means that XY (side a) = 16/3 or 5 1/3, choice B, or the second one down.
