Helping my girlfriend with math and I cant remember how to do it

Question

The length of one of the legs of a right triangle is length17. the lengths of the other two are consecutive integers. Use Pythagorean theorem to solve for the smaller of the 2 missing sides (the second leg)

Answer 1

17 ^2 = 289

h^2 = 17^2 + (h-1)^2

h^2 = 289 + h^2 -2h +1

0 = 290 -2h

h = 290/2 = 145

h-1 = 144

the other two sides are 144 and 145

hypotenuse = h = 145

longer leg = 144

145^2 = 17^2 + 144^2

21025 = 289 + 20736