document.write( "Question 592695: I have been stuck on this question for a while because I do not understand how I would answer it or even put it into a polynomial.
\n" ); document.write( "The question is:\r
\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "A 5-ft diagonal brace on a bridge connects a support of the center of the bridge to a side support on the bridge. The horizontal distance that it spans is 1 ft longer than the height that it reaches on the side of the bridge. Find the horizontal and vertical distances spanned by this brace. \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #376022 by htmentor(1343)\"\" \"About 
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A 5-ft diagonal brace on a bridge connects a support of the center of the bridge to a side support on the bridge. The horizontal distance that it spans is 1 ft longer than the height that it reaches on the side of the bridge. Find the horizontal and vertical distances spanned by this brace.
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\n" ); document.write( "Let h = the height reached by the support
\n" ); document.write( "Then the horizontal distance = h + 1
\n" ); document.write( "This forms a right triangle with hypotenuse = 5:
\n" ); document.write( "Using the Pythagorean theorem we can write
\n" ); document.write( "h^2 + (h+1)^2 = 5^2
\n" ); document.write( "Solve for h:
\n" ); document.write( "h^2 + h^2 + 2h + 1 = 25
\n" ); document.write( "2h^2 + 2h - 24 = 0
\n" ); document.write( "This can be factored as
\n" ); document.write( "2(h+4)(h-3) = 0
\n" ); document.write( "Taking the positive solution, we have h=3
\n" ); document.write( "So the vertical distance is 3, and the horizontal distance is 4.
\n" ); document.write( "Note that this is a 3-4-5 right triangle
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