The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 9 feet more than the shorter leg and the longer leg is 15 feet. How do you find the length of the hypotenuse and shorter leg?
1 Answer
Apr 20, 2018
Explanation:
Let
The shorter leg is 9 feet less than the hypotenuse, so the length of the shorter leg is:
The longer leg is 15 feet.
By Pythagoras' theorem the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides:
So we need to solve this equation for
Expand the bracket:
Simplify:
The hypotenuse is
The shorter leg is: