Question

Gary is playing the role of the Greek god Zeus in a school play. He carries a lightning bolt cut from plywood. Its dimensions are shown in the figure.

What is the area of the wooden cutout of the lightning bolt?
15
30
45
60

Answer 1

Answer: 30 square inches.

Given:

The wooden cutout of the lightning bolt consists of 2 right angled triangles with the legs being 10 inches and 3 inches.

The area of this lightning bolt will be equal to the sum of the areas of the two right angled triangles.

The area of a triangle of base 'b' and height 'h' is given as:

`A = (1)/(2) bh`

Here
`b=3 , h=10` Plug in solve for area of one of the triangles.

Therefore, area of the right angled triangle is:

`A= (1)/(2) *3*10= (30)/(2) = 15in^(2)`

Now, the two right angled triangles are congruent. So, total area is twice the area of one of the triangle.

Therefore, total area of the lightning bolt is:
`2 * 15=30in^(2)`