Question

Hi there. I am having an issue figuring out which is the base and which is the length.

Answer 1

We can split the given figure in 2 right triangles:

So, in order to get the area of each triangle, we need to find the base, denoted by x in both of them. Since both are right triangles, we can to apply Pythagoresn theorem. By applying this theorem to right hand side triangle, we have

`x^2+8^2=17^2`

so we have

`\begin{gathered} x^2+64=289 \\ then \\ x^2=289-64 \\ x^2=225 \end{gathered}`

Then, x is given by

`x=√(225)=15`

Then, the area of the left triangle is given by

`A_1=(base* height)/(2)=(15*36)/(2)=270in^2`

Similarly, the area of the second triangle is given by

`A_2=(base* height)/(2)=(15*8)/(2)=60in^2`

Then, the area of the entire figure is the sum of the area of the 2 triangles, that is,

`A=A_1+A_2=270+60=330in^2`

Therefore, the answer is: 330 square inches