A garden has the shape of a right triangle with one leg 6 meters longer than the other. The hypotenuse is 6 meters less than twice the length of the shorter leg. Find the length of the shorter leg.

Question

anonymous · Answer

let x be the shortest leg. One side is x, and the other is x + 6. The hypotenuse is 2x - 6. 

$$(2x-6)^{2} = x ^{2} + (x+6)^{2}$$

anonymous · Answer

Can you solve for x?

anonymous · Answer

No

anonymous · Answer

Too bad

anonymous · Answer

Thanks

anonymous · Answer

4^2-24x+36 = 2x^2+12x+36

Can you solve it from there?

anonymous · Answer

all I did, by the way, was expand out everything that was in parentheses

anonymous · Answer

=2x^2+12x+36=4x^2-24x+36
0=2x^2-36x
2x^2-36=0
2(x^2-18)=0
x^2-18=0
x(x-18)=0
x=0
x-18=0
x=18
Length of the shorter leg is 18 meters
Correct?