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Find the area of the following figure,(units^2)

Find the area of the following figure,(units^2)-example-1

1 Answer

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Answer:

3√7 ≈ 7.937 units²

Explanation:

You want to know the area of the isosceles triangle with congruent sides 4 units and base 6 units.

Heron's formula

The perimeter of the triangle is ...

P = 4 + 4 + 6 = 14

so the semiperimeter is ...

s = P/2 = 14/2 = 7

By Heron's formula, the area of the triangle is ...

A = √(s(s -a)(s -b)(s -c))

A = √(7(7 -4)(7 -4)(7 -6)) = 3√7

The area of the triangle is 3√7 ≈ 7.937 square units.

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Additional comment

You can also compute the area after finding the altitude (the length of the dashed line) using the Pythagorean theorem. The figure consists of two right triangles, each with leg 3 and hypotenuse 4. The missing leg (the triangle height) is then ...

h = √(4² -3²) = √7

The area is ...

A = 1/2bh = 1/2(6)(√7) = 3√7 . . . . square units

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