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The triangles are similar. What is the value of x?

The triangles are similar. What is the value of x?-example-1

1 Answer

2 votes

Answer:

12

Explanation:

If we look at the longest sides and shortest sides of both triangles (the sides that have a length we already know), we can see that the scale factor is 68/17 and 32/8, which both equal 4.

So, we know that all sides of the bigger triangle will be 4 times longer than the sides of the smaller triangle. On the smaller triangle, the second longest leg is 15 units. We also want to find the second longest leg of the bigger triangle.

We know that the length of the second longest leg of the bigger triangle is 60, because 15*4=60.

We have an equation: 60=4x=12

We isolate x:

4x=48

x=12

So, x is 12.