Question

Jason had to replace the floor of a triangular portion of his dining room. The portion had a height that was twice as high as the base. If the total area of the portion he needed to replace was 16 square feet (16ft2),how long in feet was the base of the portion he needed to replace?

Answer 1

4 feet

Explanation:

We know the the area of a triangle can be represented as
`(bh)/(2)`.

Since the height is twice the base, we can substitute the value
`2b` in as
`h` in the expression, making it
`(b\cdot2b)/(2)`. If the area is 16, we can make the equation

`(b\cdot2b)/(2) = 16`

Now to solve for b.

`(2b^2)/(2) = 16\\(2b^2)/(2)\cdot2 = 16\cdot2\\\\2b^2 = 32\\\\2b^2/2 = 32/2\\\\b^2 = 16\\\\b=4`

Hope this helped!