The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 10 cm long. The shorter leg is 2 cm shorter than the longer leg. Find the side lengths of the triangle

Answer 1

Hi Elizabeth,

this is an ordinary algebra question, hidden in a word problem.

First, identify and label all relevant unknowns

Let b = length of the big leg of the right triangle

Let s = length of the small leg

By Pythagorean theorem, we know that

b² + s² = 10²

and we also know that

b = s + 2

so replace “b” with “s + 2” in the Pythagorean line, and solve for s.

then add 2 to s to get b.