The hypotenuse of a right angled triangle is of length square root34. The sum of the other two sides is 8. How do you find the length of each side?

1 Answer
Gió
Feb 12, 2016

I found 3 and 5

Explanation:

We can use Pythagoras theorem where a and b are the two sides and c=sqrt(34) is the hipotenuse to get:
c^2=a^2+b^2
you also know that a+b=8
or a=8-b into c^2=a^2+b^2 you get:
34=(8-b)^2+b^2
34=64-16b+b^2+b^2
2b^2-16b+30=0
Using the Quadratic Formula:
b_(1,2)=(16+-sqrt(256-240))/4=(16+-4)/4
getting:
b_1=5
b_2=3
and:
a_1=8-5=3
a_2=8-3=5

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