SOLUTION: John and Ben are working on a building project together where they must create a right angle triangle. John has a side that is 3 inches long. Ben has a side that is one inch longer

Question 198105: John and Ben are working on a building project together where they must create a right angle triangle. John has a side that is 3 inches long. Ben has a side that is one inch longer than John's side. How long is the side they are missing?
Answer by Earlsdon(6294) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Well, that depends whether the missing side is the hypotenuse or not
If the missing side is the hypotenuse (always the longest side), then, by the Pythagorean theorem (), the missing side (c) must be 5 inches long because in this right triangle...

But, if the missing side is not the hypotenuse, then the hypotenuse must be the 4-inch side, so, let the missing side be a, then, by Pythagoras...

inches.
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