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xCarry your intermediate computations to at least four decimal places. Round your answer to the nearest tenth.

xCarry your intermediate computations to at least four decimal places. Round your-example-1

1 Answer

4 votes

Given

sides 17 ft, 14 ft, and 20 ft.

Recall that given three sides of a triangle, we can calculate the area using Heron's Formula which states that


\begin{gathered} A=√(s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)) \\ \text{where} \\ a,b,\text{ and }c\text{ are the length of the sides of a triangle} \\ s\text{ is }(a+b+c)/(2) \end{gathered}

Solve for s first and we get


\begin{gathered} s=(a+b+c)/(2) \\ s=(14+17+20)/(2) \\ s=(51)/(2) \\ s=25.5 \end{gathered}

Next, use Heron's formula and we have


\begin{gathered} A=√(s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)) \\ A=√(25.5(25.5-14)(25.5-17)(25.5-20)) \\ A=\sqrt{25.5\cdot11.5\operatorname{\cdot}8.5\operatorname{\cdot}5.5} \\ A=√(13709.4375) \\ A=117.0873 \end{gathered}

Rounding our final answer to the nearest tenth, the area of the given triangle is 117.1 square feet.