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

Ethan Reed

Mathematics

20 February, 14:36

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

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Answers (1)

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Sharon Delgado · Answer 1

If one leg is x.

The other needs to be longer than 7, so it is (x + 7)

By Pythagoras' Theorem:

x² + (x + 7) ² = 13²

x² + (x + 7) ² = 169

So that is the equation.

From the Pythagorean triple of 5, 12, 13, one would know that if the equation above is solved, x = 5.