Question

A pennant is shaped like a right triangle with a hypotenuse of 10feet. The length of one side of the pennant is two feet longer than the length of the other side. Find the length of the two sides of the pennant.

Answer 1

6 ft and 8 ft

Explanation:

let x be the length of one leg then (x + 2) is the other leg.

Using Pythagoras' identity in the right triangle, that is

x² + (x + 2)² = 10² ← expand left side and simplify

x² + x² + 4x + 4 = 100 ( subtract 100 from both sides )

2x² + 4x - 96 = 0 ( divide all terms by 2 )

x² + 2x - 48 = 0 ← in standard form

(x + 8)(x - 6) = 0 ← in factored form

Equate each factor to zero and solve for x

x + 8 = 0 ⇒ x = - 8

x - 6 = 0 ⇒ x = 6

But x > 0 ⇒ x = 6

Thus the 2 sides are 6 ft and x + 2 = 6 + 2 = 8 ft