SOLUTION: The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 2 ft less than three times the shortest leg. The longer leg is 3 ft less than three times the shorter leg. Find the length of each side of the

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Question 1102193: The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 2 ft less than three times the shortest leg. The longer leg is 3 ft less than three times the shorter leg. Find the length of each side of the triangle.
Answer by richwmiller(17219) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
l^2+s^2=h^2
h=3*s-2
l=3*s-3
(3*s-3)^2+s^2=(3*s-2)^2
(3s-3)*(3s-3)=9s^2-6s+9
(3s-2)*(3s-2)=9s^2-4s+4
9s^2-6s+9+s^2=9s^2-4s+4
subtract 9s^2 from both sides
add 4s to both sides
subtract 4 from both sides
s^2-2s+5=0
I suspect that you copied something incorrectly

Solved by pluggable solver: Quadratic Formula

Let's use the quadratic formula to solve for x:

Starting with the general quadratic

the general solution using the quadratic equation is:

So lets solve ( notice , , and )

Plug in a=1, b=-2, and c=5

Negate -2 to get 2

Square -2 to get 4 (note: remember when you square -2, you must square the negative as well. This is because .)

Multiply to get

Combine like terms in the radicand (everything under the square root)

Simplify the square root (note: If you need help with simplifying the square root, check out this solver)

Multiply 2 and 1 to get 2

After simplifying, the quadratic has roots of

or