SOLUTION: I'm a 1st year college student who is 36 years old. My algebra skills are lacking, so I need a little help to undertsand what I'm doing with some formulas. The question = The hyp

Question 42784: I'm a 1st year college student who is 36 years old. My algebra skills are lacking, so I need a little help to undertsand what I'm doing with some formulas.
The question = The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 2 meters more than the length of the longer leg. The shorter leg is 10 meters. Find the length of the longer leg. I know the equation uses A^2+B^2=C^2 so my begining equation is 10+a=a+2 then it needs to be squared. This is where I start to get lost. Tutor, please help. I know the answer measures 10,24,26 meters. How can I show how I got to this?
Answer by aaaaaaaa(138) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Hi! You already know that, in a right triangle, . We know that b = 10 (it could be a as well), so b^2 must equal 100. But that's still not using the whole information of the problem. We know that c = a+2, or a = c-2. Let's try and substitute for a:

Expanding the right part (a*a + a*2 + 2*a + 2*2) gives

Subtracting a^2 from each side, you get a first degree equation, which should be easy!

If 96 = 4a, a = 24 and a+2 = 26.
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