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A square is inscribed in a right triangle, as shown below. The legs of the triangle are 1 and 1. Find the area of the square.

A square is inscribed in a right triangle, as shown below. The legs of the triangle-example-1

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Answer:

2/9

Explanation:

You want the area of a square inscribed in an isosceles right triangle with legs 1 unit.

Ratios

Referring to the attached figure, we have right triangle ABC with sides AB = AC = 1. The ratio the side length to the hypotenuse of an isosceles right triangle is 1 : √2, so we have ...

FG/FA = √2/1 ⇒ FG = FA·√2

FH/FB = 1/√2 ⇒ FH = FB/√2

Since FG=FH, we have ...

FA·√2 = FB/√2

FB = 2·FA

Side length

AB = 1 = FB +FA = (2FA) +FA = 3FA

This means FA = 1/3 and the side length of the square is √2/3.

The area of the square is ...

A = s² = (√2/3)² = 2/9

The area of the square is 2/9 square units.

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Additional comments

The centroid of the square is the same as the centroid of the triangle. We constructed the figure using the triangle centroid to help divide the sides into thirds.

The figure can be divided into 9 congruent triangles of the size of ∆AGF. The square is comprised of 4 of those.

A square is inscribed in a right triangle, as shown below. The legs of the triangle-example-1
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