SOLUTION: A sail on a sailboat is in the shape of two adjacent right triangles. The hypotenuse of the lower triangle is 10 ft, and one leg is 2 ft shorter than the other leg. Find the length
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Question 1049858: A sail on a sailboat is in the shape of two adjacent right triangles. The hypotenuse of the lower triangle is 10 ft, and one leg is 2 ft shorter than the other leg. Find the lengths of the legs of the lower triangle.
Preview of the problem: http://s9.postimg.org/p9lwajdin/Picture1.png Answer by jorel555(1290) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Let the shorter leg be n. Then, the longer leg is n+2. So:
n²+(n+2)²=100
2n²+4n+4=100
n²+2n-48=0
(n+8)(n-6)=0
n=6,-8
The shorter leg is 6 ft., the longer leg is 8 ft. ☺☺☺☺
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