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An equilateral triangle with side length 18 cm is shown in the diagram, work out the height of the triangle.

Give your answer rounded to 1 DP.

User Caylin
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1 Answer

23 votes
23 votes

Explanation:

as the height in such a triangle (all 3 sides are equally long, and therefore also all 3 angles are equal 60°) is creating a right angle (90°) with the opposing side (and "splitting" it in half at the crossing point), we can use Pythagoras to calculate the length of the height :

side is the baseline, the height is one leg, and half of the other side is the second leg.

18² = height² + (18/2)² = height² + 9²

324 = height² + 81

height² = 243

height = 15.58845727... cm ≈ 15.6 cm

User Bruce Stemplewski
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