Answer:
40ft^2
Explanation:
Hello There!
In this problem since we know that these are similar triangles we can set up a ratio in order to solve for the missing leg lenght, and then the areas.
This can be done by using the ratios and solving for x:
x
After this is done we find that the missing leg on the larger triangle is equal to roughly 6. With this in mind we find the area of the two triangles by multiplying the legs and dividing by 2, respectively.
The larger triangle will have an area of 72ft^2
the smaller triangle will have an area of 32ft^2
in order to find the difference in area we will simply subtract the two and find that the difference is equal to 40ft^2
Hope this helps
-HM