Question

A street sign is in the shape of an isosceles triangle that has a base of 6.5 inches bigger than either of the equal sides. If the perimeter of the triangle is 65 inches, what is the length of the equal sides?

Answer 1

19.5 inches

Explanation:

You can interpret this problem as x + x + (x + 6.5)=65, with x being the length of the equal sides.

Simplified, this equation becomes 3x+6.5=65.

Solving, this becomes 3x+6.5-6.5=65-6.5 which comes out as 3x=58.5. Next, we divide this equation by 3 on both sides, which then comes out to x=19.5. Therefore, the length of equal sides are 19.5.

Check: There are two equal sides, so 19.5+19.5. Since the base is 6.5 inches bigger than either of the equal sides, the base is equal to 19.5+6.5=26. Adding these values all together comes out to 19.5+19.5+26=65.

Answer 2

19.5

Explanation:

side is 6.5 bigger, so minus the 6.5 from the total perimeter of 65 and divide by 3.

65- 6.5 = 58.5

58.5 ÷ 3 = 19.5

equal sides are 19.5

longer side is 19.5 + 6.5