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What is the area of this Triangle? Geometry.

What is the area of this Triangle? Geometry.-example-1
User Shrx
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1 Answer

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Answer: 11 square units

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Step-by-step explanation:

Refer to the diagram below. I've added point labels A,B,C to the corners of the rectangle. A in the upper left corner, B in the upper right, C in the lower right.

The area of the rectangle is

length*width = AB*BC = 6*4 = 24 square units.

We'll use this value later, so let m = 24

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The area of triangle IAK is

base*height/2 = KA*AI/2 = 2*4/2 = 8/2 = 4 square units

We'll use this value later, so let n = 4

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Repeat the idea of the last section, but do so for triangle KBJ

area = base*height/2

area = JB*BK/2

area = 3*4/2

area = 12/2

area = 6

Triangle KBJ is 6 square units. Let p = 6 so we can use it later.

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Lastly, triangle JCI has area of...

area = base*height/2

area = IC*JC/2

area = 6*1/2

area = 3

Let q = 3

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To summarize everything so far, we have

  • m = 24 = area of entire rectangle
  • n = 4 = area of triangle IAK
  • p = 6 = area of triangle KBJ
  • q = 3 = area of triangle JCI

As you can probably guess where this is going, we'll subtract off the areas of the smaller triangles (n, p and q) from the overall larger rectangle (m) to get the area of triangle IJK.

m - n - p - q = 24 - 4 - 6 - 3 = 11

Triangle IJK has an area of 11 square units.

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An alternative method involves using this outline

  1. Use the distance formula to find the side lengths IK, IJ, and KJ
  2. Then use Heron's Formula to find the area of the triangle.
What is the area of this Triangle? Geometry.-example-1
User Crizzis
by
6.2k points