Question

The side length of an equilateral triangle is 7 centimeters. Find the length of the altitude

Answer 1

Explanation:

The altitude of an equilateral triangle is basically the height of the triangle. We can find this using trigonometry, even though I'm sure there's a beautiful little formula that can find this.

If you cut an equilateral triangle in half, you get two special 30-60-90 triangles. The base of each triangle is 3.5 cm in length, and the height (not the hypotenuse!) is equal to:

`base*√(3)`

So basically we have 3.5(sqrt(3)), or our altitude! Wow, how easy!

`3.5(√(3))=6.06`

Hope this helps!