Question 67603
1) the area of a right triangle is 44m squared. find the lengths of its legs if one of the legs is 3 m longer than the other
Let one of the legs be "x".
The other leg is "x+3"
Area = (1/2)x(x+3)=44
x(x+3)=88
x^2+3x-88=0
(x+11)(x-8)=0
x= -11 or x=8
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2) the hypotneuse of a right triangle is 25m long. the length of one leg is 10m less than twice the other. find the length of each leg.

Let one of the legs be "x".
The other leg is "2x-10".
Use Pythagoras to get:
x^2+(2x+10)^2 = 25^2
x^2 + 4x^2+40x+100=625
6x^2+40x-525=0
x=[-40+-sqrt(40^2-4*6*-525)/12
x=[-40+-sqrt(14200)]/12
x=6.597 (one of the legs)
2x+10=23.194 (the other leg)
Cheers,
Stan H.

Cheers,
Stan H.