Question

the hypotenuse of a triangle is 26 feet long one leg of the triangle is 14 feet longer than the other leg find the lengths of the legs of the triangle

Answer 1

I'm assuming this is a right angled triangle
By Pythagoras:_

x^2 + (x + 14)^2 = 26^2 where x = length of the shortest leg

x^2 + x^2 + 28x + 196 = 676

2x^2 + 28x - 480 = 0

x^2 + 14x - 240 = 0

(x + 24)(x - 10) = 0

so shortest side x = 10 feet ( we ignore the negative root)


So the lengths of the legs is 10 and 24 feet.