167k views
3 votes
Jason had to replace the floor of a triangular portion of his dining room. The portion had a height that was twice as high as the base. If the total area of the portion he needed to replace was 16 square feet ( 16f t 2 ), how long in feet was the base of the portion he needed to replace?

User Knotito
by
5.5k points

1 Answer

6 votes

Answer:

The base was 4 feet long.

Explanation:

Hi there!

The area of the triangle is calculated using the following equation:

area = b · h / 2

Where:

b = base of the triangle.

h = height of the triangle.

We also know that the height is twice as long as the base, then:

h = 2 · b

With this information we can write a system of two equations with two unknowns:

16 ft² = b · h / 2

h = 2 · b

If we replace h by 2 · b in the first equation, we can solve the equation and obtain the value of the base:

16 ft² = b · (2 · b)/2

16 ft² = b²

√16ft² = √b²

4 ft = b

The base was 4 feet long.

Have a nice day!

User Rzb
by
5.5k points