A Zero Prejudice Is a Requirement

Geometry Level 4

How many right triangles have sides given by 4 x 3 , 12 x 4x-3, 12-x , and 3 x + 4 3x+4 ?


The answer is 4.

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

1 solution

Marta Reece
Jun 25, 2017

Any of the three sides may be the hypotenuse, so there are three possible equations for x x , namely:

( 4 x 3 ) 2 = ( 12 x ) 2 + ( 3 x + 4 ) 2 (4x-3)^2=(12-x)^2+(3x+4)^2 with solutions x = 12 ± 5 42 6 x=\dfrac{12\pm5\sqrt{42}}6 which come to 7.401 7.401 and 3.401 -3.401

( 12 x ) 2 = ( 3 x + 4 ) 2 + ( 4 x 3 ) 2 (12-x)^2=(3x+4)^2+(4x-3)^2 with solutions x = 6 ± 5 30 12 x=\dfrac{-6\pm5\sqrt{30}}{12} which come to 1.782 1.782 and 2.782 -2.782

( 3 x + 4 ) 2 = ( 4 x 3 ) 2 + ( 12 x ) 2 (3x+4)^2=(4x-3)^2+(12-x)^2 with solutions x = 18 ± 5 2 4 x=\dfrac{18\pm5\sqrt2}4 which come to 6.268 6.268 and 2.732 2.732

The two negative solutions give negative side lengths when substituted into 4 x 3 4x-3 and are therefore not applicable.

The remaining four solutions all produce usable triangle sides, since the sum of the two smallest numbers in the triple is larger than the largest number.

1.782 1.782 produces sides 4.128 , 10.218 , 9.346 4.128, 10.218, 9.346

7.401 7.401 produces sides 26.604 , 4.599 , 26.203 26.604, 4.599, 26.203

6.268 6.268 produces sides 22.072 , 5.732 , 22.804 22.072, 5.732, 22.804

2.732 2.732 produces sides 7.928 , 9.268 , 12.196 7.928, 9.268, 12.196

So there are 4 \boxed4 solutions.

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...