SOLUTION: One leg Of a right triangle Is 5 inches lInter than the other. If the hypotenuse is 25 inches long, Find the lengths of the legs.(only an algerbraic solution will be accepted)

Question 986779: One leg Of a right triangle Is 5 inches lInter than the other. If the hypotenuse is 25 inches long, Find the lengths of the legs.(only an algerbraic solution will be accepted)
Answer by Cromlix(4381) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Hi there,
One leg is 5 ins. shorter than
other leg.
Other leg = 'x'
One leg = x - 5
Hypotenuse = 25 ins
x^2 + (x - 5)^2 = 25^2
x^2 + x^2 - 10 + 25 = 625
2x^2 - 10x - 600 = 0
Divide thro' by 2
x^2 - 5x - 300 = 0
Factorise
(x - 20)(x + 15) = 0
x + 15 = 0
x = -15 (no answer as -ve)
x - 20 = 0
x = 20
Other leg = 20 inches
One leg = 15 inches
Hypotenuse = 25 inches.
Hope this helps :-)
RELATED QUESTIONS
One leg of a right triangle is 2 inches smaller than the hypotenuse. The other leg is 5... (answered by funmath)

One leg of a right triangle is 2 inches smaller than the hypotenuse. The other leg is 5... (answered by tutor_paul)

one leg of a right triangle measures three inches less than the other leg. find the... (answered by nerdybill)

if one leg of a right triangle is 8 inches long, and the other leg is 12 inches long, how (answered by unlockmath)

One leg of a right triangle is 44 inches more than twicetwice the length of the... (answered by MathLover1,Alan3354,josgarithmetic)

The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 5 inches long. The shorter leg is 1 inch shorter... (answered by rfer)

The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 5 inches long. The longer leg is 1 inch longer... (answered by ikleyn)

the hypotenuse of a right triangle is 25 inches , one of the legs is 5 inches more than... (answered by scott8148)

The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 10 inches long. The longer leg is 2 inches longer... (answered by ikleyn)