Angle $eab$ is a right angle, and $be = 9$ units. what is the number of square units in the sum of the areas of the two squares $abcd$ and $aefg$?

Let the measure of side AB be x, then, the measue of side AE is given by

.

Now, ABCD is a square of size x, thus the area of square ABCD is given by



Also, AEFG is a square of size , thus, the area of square AEFG is given by



The sum of the areas of the two squares ABCD and AEFG is given by



Therefore, the number of square units in the sum of the areas of the two squares ABCD and AEFG is 81 square units.

Best answer that i found on yahoo ok   set :   x= length of 2nd piece in cm  x- 3= length of 1st piece in cm  x-4= length of 3rd piece in cm  then since you know they all came from the 20 cm ribbon you add them together and set them equal to 20x+ x-3 +x-4 = 20  3x - 7= 20  3x= 27  x= 9  the shortest piece is the third piece which is x- 4  x-4  9-4 = 5  the length of the smallest piece is 5 cm.  the other lengths are  9 cm  6 cm