Actually, I should clarify a little: The more recent In re Bilski establishes that a rote process (like finding the length of the hypotenuse in your example) is

Actually, I should clarify a little: The more recent In re Bilski establishes that a rote process (like finding the length of the hypotenuse in your example) is not patentable. It requires a machine or a tangible transformation. That is, a machine that does this calculation.