Question 304647
Can you please help me with this problem? 
Rectangular stage. One side of a rectangular stage is
2 meters longer than the other. If the diagonal is 10 meters,
then what are the lengths of the sides?

Let x be the width. Then x+2 is the length. Then the diagonal is the hypotenuse of a right triangle. By the Pythagorean Theorem we have:

x^2 + (x+2)^2 = 10^2  
x^2 + x^2 + 4x + 4 = 100
2x^2 + 4x - 96 = 0
x^2 + 2x - 48 = 0
(x+8)*(x-6) = 0

x = -8 or x = 6
A dimension can't be negative so the width x = 6. The length then is x+2 = 8.