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WORD PROBLEM

Question

The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 6 more

than the shorter leg. The longer leg is three more than the shorter leg. Find the length of the shorter leg.

Solving the problem

If we let the length of shorter leg as x, the que

stion's picture is as below. Then by pythagore an theorem, (x+6)^2=x^2+(x+3)^2. The sign ^ means to the power of something. For examp le, 3^2 means 3 to the power of 2 which is 9.

x+6 x

Wolfram Alpha http://www.wolframalpha.com/

Enter equation

outcome

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28x%2B6%29 %5E2%3Dx%5E2%2B%28x%2B3%29%5E2

 (x+6)^2=x^2+(x+3)^2

x^2+12x+36=x^2+x^2+6x+9
x^2+12x+36=2x^2+6x+9 -x^2+6x+27=0 x^2-6x+27=0 (x+3)(x-9)=0

x=9