The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 4 inches long One leg is 1 inch longer than the other Find the length of the shorter leg?

Answer 1

Answer:

2.283882181 inches and the other leg is 3.283882181 inches

Check: 2.2838821812+3.2838821812 = 16 and the square root of 16 is 4

This problem was solved by using Pythagoras' theorem and the quadratic equation formula.

Pythagoras:

Let the shorter leg be x and the longer leg be x+1.

x2+(x+1)2 = 16

x2+x2+2x+1 = 16

X2+x2+2x+1-16 = 0

2x2+2x-15 = 0

Solving the above equation by using the quadratic equation formula will give:

x = -3.283882181 or x = 2.283882181, so x must be the latter because dimensions can't be negative (well they can be negative, but that is another kind of geometry...)