A piece of wire is 76cm long.it is cut into two unequal parts and each part is bent into a square.the sum of the areas of two squares is 205cm^2.find the length of the shorter part of the wire.

Answer 1

[(76 - x) / 4]² + (x / 4)² = 205

76² - 152 x + x² + x² = 205 * 16

use the quadratic formula to find x

either x or 76-x is shorter