SOLUTION: The flower garden has the shape of a right triangle. 20ft of a perennial border forms the hypotenuse of the triangle, and one leg is 4ft longer than the other leg.Find the lengths

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Question 162658: The flower garden has the shape of a right triangle. 20ft of a perennial border forms the hypotenuse of the triangle, and one leg is 4ft longer than the other leg.Find the lengths of the legs.
Answer by josmiceli(19441) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let the length of the hypotenuse = ft
Let the length of the shorter side = ft
Let the length of the longer side = ft
From the Pythagorean theorem,

ft
ft

Complete the square by taking 1/2 of the coefficient of
b, square it, add it to both sides. First add to
both sides

Take the square root of both sides (there is a (-) square root also,
but I can ignore it)

The lengths of the legs are 12 ft and 16 ft
check answer:

OK