SOLUTION: A pennant is shaped like a right triangle, with hypotenuse 15 feet. The length of one side of the pennant is three feet longer than the length of the other side. Find the length, i

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Question 1138822: A pennant is shaped like a right triangle, with hypotenuse 15 feet. The length of one side of the pennant is three feet longer than the length of the other side. Find the length, in feet, of the two sides of the pennant.
Answer by greenestamps(13198) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!


By the Pythagorean Theorem,

%28x%29%5E2%2B%28x%2B3%29%5E2+=+15%5E2

Solving for x is relatively easy.

But a person with a little experience, seeing that the hypotenuse of a right triangle is 15, will immediately suspect the triangle has side lengths 9, 12, and 15 (3 times the basic Pythagorean Triple 3, 4, 5). And indeed 12 is 3 more than 9, so the other two sides of the pennant are 9 feet and 12 feet.