SOLUTION: one leg of a right triangle exceeds the other leg by four inches. the hypotenuse is 10 inches. find the length of the shorter leg of the right triangle .

Question 270407: one leg of a right triangle exceeds the other leg by four inches. the hypotenuse is 10 inches. find the length of the shorter leg of the right triangle .
Answer by Greenfinch(383) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
By Pythagoras
x^2 + (x + 4)^2 = 100
2x^2 + 8x + 16 = 100
x^2 + 4x - 42 = 0

Solved by pluggable solver: SOLVE quadratic equation with variable

Quadratic equation (in our case ) has the following solutons:

For these solutions to exist, the discriminant should not be a negative number.

First, we need to compute the discriminant : .

Discriminant d=184 is greater than zero. That means that there are two solutions: .

Quadratic expression can be factored:

Again, the answer is: 4.78232998312527, -8.78232998312527. Here's your graph:

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