The sides of a right angled triangle are in arithmetic progression. If the triangle has area 24, then what is the length of its smallest side?
Answer: 6
Solution
Let the sides be where and is the hypotenuse. By Pythagoras: , which simplifies to , giving or . The sides are . Area: , so and , giving . The sides are 6, 8, 10, and the smallest is 6.
JEE Advanced · 2017 · 21 May 2017 · Paper 1 · Integer answer