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March 29, 2024, 04:17:23 am

Author Topic: Arithmetic sequence question help  (Read 1532 times)  Share 

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blossomcotton

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Arithmetic sequence question help
« on: July 17, 2020, 02:47:11 pm »
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Hi everyone!

I am a bit stuck with this question:
'The lengths of the sides of a right-angled triangle form the terms of an arithmetic sequence. If the hypotenuse is 25cm long, find the lengths of the other two sides.'

I started by drawing a right angled triangle and I labeled the two sides using x and y.

Thank you!

1729

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Re: Arithmetic sequence question help
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2020, 03:16:20 pm »
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Hi everyone!

I am a bit stuck with this question:
'The lengths of the sides of a right-angled triangle form the terms of an arithmetic sequence. If the hypotenuse is 25cm long, find the lengths of the other two sides.'

I started by drawing a right angled triangle and I labeled the two sides using x and y.

Thank you!
Okay so since it is a triangle and the other sides are part of an arithmetic series you are either subtracting or adding x so the hypotenuse would be 25, right? The other side would be 25-x, and then the next side would be 25-2x because its an arithmetic sequence. Okay so you use the Pythagorean thereom to solve for x, so 25^2 = (25-x)^2 + (25-2x)^2.

And for your information the answer is 5. If x was 25 a side would be equal to 0 and you dont want that or -25 yikes.