Question

Note: Enter your answer and show all the steps that you use to solve this problem in the space provided. 20 cm 8 cm A 12 cm 16 cm Drawing not to scale The two triangles above are similar. a Find x using the ratio of the sides 12 cm and 16 cm: 20 = 1. Show your work. b. Find x using the ratio of the sides 6 cm and 8 cm. Show your work. c. Explain why the answers to (a) and (b) should be the same.

Answer 1

Part a

For this case we can solve the value of x with the following proportion rule:

`(x)/(12)=(20)/(16)`
`x=12\cdot(20)/(16)=15`

Part b

We can do the following:

`(x)/(6)=(20)/(8)`

And solving we got:

`x=6\cdot(20)/(8)=15`

Part c

For this case we can see that both answers are equal since we satisfy the proportional rule between equivalent sides of the similar triangles