Question

What is the area of the triangle?
16
8
10

Answer 1

64

Explanation:

Find the area of both triangles inside the bigger triangle and add them together.

Use the Pythagorean theorem to find the missing length of the leg in the smallest triangle:

a² + b² = c²

8² + b² = 10²

64 + b² = 100

36 = b²

6 = b

Calculate the area of the smaller triangle:

1/2(bxh)

1/2(6 x 8)

1/2(48)

24

Calculate the area of the bigger triangle:

We know that the longer leg is 10 units because we were able to subtract the length of the smaller triangle's leg from 16.

1/2(bxh)

1/2(10 x 8)

1/2(80)

40

Add both areas to find the area of the largest triangle:

40 + 24 = 64