Question

one leg of a right triangle is three times the length of the other leg. the hypotenuse is 20 inches long. find the length of each leg?

Answer 1

20^2 = x^2+9x^2
400 = 10x^2
40 = x^2
x = 2sqrt10 -- length of the shorter leg
3x = 6sqrt10 --- length of the longer leg

Answer 2

omg thanks so much

Answer 3

a^2 + b^2 = c^2 in a right triangle, where c is the length of the hypotenuse, here 20.

a^2 + b^2 = 20^2 = 400

we know that a = 3b because one leg is three times the length of the other.

a^2 + b^2 = 400
(3b)^2 + b^2 = 400
9b^2 + b^2 = 400
10b^2 = 400
b^2 = 40
b = sqrt 40 = sqrt 4 * sqrt 10 = 2 sqrt 10
a = 3b = 3*2 sqrt 10 = 6 sqrt 10