Question 190583
    Could I have some help figuring out this problem. Thank you. The hypotenuse of a right triagle is 4 inches long. One leg is 1 inch longer than the other. Find the length of the shorter leg. Round to the nearest tenth.
.
Let x = length of shorter leg
then
x+1 = length of longer leg
.
Applying Pythagorean theorem we have:
x^2 + (x+1)^2 = 4^2
x^2 + x+^2+2x+1 = 16
2x+^2+2x+1 = 16
2x+^2+2x+-15 = 0
.
Applying the quadratic equation yields two solution:
x = {2.3, -3.3}
We can toss out the negative solution leaving us with:
x = 2.3 inches
.
Details of the quadratic follows:
*[invoke quadratic "x", 2, 2, -15 ]