Well, there's many possible answers. I'll give a few:
- Russia doesn't have "inches"
- The question has English terms like "hypotenuse"
- The Russian students were younger
- There were differences in conventions, e.g. which side is down. An altitude dropped onto the hypotenuse of a right triangle could be perpendicular, or either of the two other sides.
- And so on...
A lot of these problems are designed for a conversation rather than a solution.
Inches is not the issue. It could be any units. The joke about the American vs Russian students was a jab at the American students, not the Russian ones! Something about the Russian students seeing something that American student couldn't. I don't agree with the premise of course, just providing the extra info as a hint.
I can believe, however, that this problem was on a standardized test in US at some point. This last sentence points to the answer a bit more too :)
- Russia doesn't have "inches"
- The question has English terms like "hypotenuse"
- The Russian students were younger
- There were differences in conventions, e.g. which side is down. An altitude dropped onto the hypotenuse of a right triangle could be perpendicular, or either of the two other sides.
- And so on...
A lot of these problems are designed for a conversation rather than a solution.