What are two different ways you could find the value of a? Explain these methods.

Two different ways you could find the value of a is rearranging the numbers of the equation so all the variables would be on one side of the equation and all the whole numbers would be on the other side of the equation. You could also plug in numbers for the other variables to find the value of a.

Using the Pythagorean theorem we can know from the first triangle that the height of the two triangles are 12. So, we then know that a = 20.

(Root 15^2-9^2=12) (Root 12^2+16^2=20)

Another way is using the whole triangle. The step above used two triangles. The two triangles together makes a big right triangle, so we can again use the Pythagorean theorem. So, the answer again is 20.

(Root 25^2-15^2=20)

Step-by-step explanation:

step-by-step explanation: 2