SOLUTION: Please help me! I am so confused on this, I have tried it several times but its just not clicking tonight.. The question is. The area of a right triangle is 260 in^2 Find th

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Question 867099: Please help me! I am so confused on this, I have tried it several times but its just not clicking tonight.. The question is.

The area of a right triangle is 260 in^2
Find the length of its legs if one leg is 6 inches longer than the other. (Use the five step method and show ALL work for full credit.)


If you could please explain this when helping me with this problem so I can solve the other problems similar to this one on my own. Thank you!
Found 2 solutions by josgarithmetic, MathTherapy:
Answer by josgarithmetic(39630) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Right triangle will have two legs. One is a base and the other is a height.

Let b = base
Let y = height.

Formula for area of a triangle is %281%2F2%29b%2Ay.
Problem description is translated into symbols as ... you need to choose which length is the base and which is the height.

I will use "one leg" as b.
One leg is 6+y.
This means b=6%2By.

Put this all into the equation for the given area.
%281%2F2%29by=260
%281%2F2%29%28y%2B6%29y=260
Now you should be no longer confused. Solve for y and then use the found value to get the value for b.

Answer by MathTherapy(10557) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!

Please help me! I am so confused on this, I have tried it several times but its just not clicking tonight.. The question is.

The area of a right triangle is 260 in^2
Find the length of its legs if one leg is 6 inches longer than the other. (Use the five step method and show ALL work for full credit.)


If you could please explain this when helping me with this problem so I can solve the other problems similar to this one on my own. Thank you!


Let longer leg be L

Then shorter leg = L - 6

Therefore, %281%2F2%29L%28L+-+6%29+=+260

%28L%5E2+-+6L%29%2F2+=+260

L%5E2+-+6L+=+520 ------- Cross-multiplying

L%5E2+-+6L+-+520+=+0

Solve for L, the longer leg, and then the shorter leg, or L - 6

You then do a check!! 



If you need a complete and detailed solution, let me know!!



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