Arturo is building a flower bed in the shape of a right triangle. The hypotenuse of the right triangle is 13 feet. One of the legs needs to be 7 feet longer than the other leg.

Which equation can be used to find x, the length of the shorter leg?

x(x + 7) = 13
x(x + 7) = 169
x2 + (x + 7)2 = 13
x2 + (x + 7)2 = 169

Question

Arturo is building a flower bed in the shape of a right triangle. The hypotenuse of the right triangle is 13 feet. One of the legs needs to be 7 feet longer than the other leg.

Which equation can be used to find x, the length of the shorter leg?

x(x + 7) = 13
x(x + 7) = 169
x2 + (x + 7)2 = 13
x2 + (x + 7)2 = 169

Mercury · Answer

let x be the length of the shorter leg, as suggested

"One of the legs needs to be 7 feet longer than the other leg." --> translate this into an expression for the longer leg

then apply the pythagorean theorem

(shorter leg)^2 + (longer leg)^2 = hypotenuse^2