This is an interesting problem from the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust (UKMT) Senior Math Challenge of 2008.

“The length of the hypotenuse of a particular right-angled triangle is given by √(1 + 3 + 5 + … + 23 + 25). The lengths of the other two sides are given by √(1 + 3 + 5 + … + (x – 2) + x) and √ (1 + 3 + 5 + … + (y – 2) + y) where x and y are positive integers. What is the value of x + y?”

Answer.

See the Right Triangle with Roots for a solution.