The area of the triangle is 35 square meters. Find the dimensions of the triangle, given the height is (g - 11) meters and the base is (g - 8) meters.
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Understand the Problem
The question provides the area of a right triangle as 35 square meters. The height is given as (g - 11) meters and the base is given as (g - 8) meters. We need to find the value of 'g', which will allow us to calculate the actual dimensions (base and height) of the triangle.
Answer
Base: $10$ meters, Height: $7$ meters
Answer for screen readers
The dimensions of the triangle are: Base: 10 meters Height: 7 meters
Steps to Solve
- Write the formula for the area of a triangle
The area $A$ of a triangle is given by the formula: $$ A = \frac{1}{2} \cdot \text{base} \cdot \text{height} $$
- Substitute the given values into the formula
We are given that the area $A = 35$, the base is $(g-8)$, and the height is $(g-11)$. Substituting these values into the formula, we get: $$ 35 = \frac{1}{2} (g-8)(g-11) $$
- Simplify the equation and expand the terms
Multiply both sides of the equation by 2: $$ 70 = (g-8)(g-11) $$ Expand the right side of the equation: $$ 70 = g^2 - 11g - 8g + 88 $$ $$ 70 = g^2 - 19g + 88 $$
- Rearrange the equation into a quadratic equation
Subtract 70 from both sides of the equation to set it equal to zero: $$ 0 = g^2 - 19g + 88 - 70 $$ $$ 0 = g^2 - 19g + 18 $$
- Solve the quadratic equation
We can solve this quadratic equation by factoring. We are looking for two numbers that multiply to 18 and add up to -19. These numbers are -1 and -18: $$ 0 = (g - 1)(g - 18) $$ Setting each factor equal to zero gives us two possible solutions for $g$: $$ g - 1 = 0 \Rightarrow g = 1 $$ $$ g - 18 = 0 \Rightarrow g = 18 $$
- Check the validity of the solutions
If $g = 1$, then the height would be $g - 11 = 1 - 11 = -10$ meters, and the base would be $g - 8 = 1 - 8 = -7$ meters. Since the dimensions of a triangle cannot be negative, $g = 1$ is not a valid solution. If $g = 18$, then the height would be $g - 11 = 18 - 11 = 7$ meters, and the base would be $g - 8 = 18 - 8 = 10$ meters. These are both positive, so $g = 18$ is a valid solution.
- Find the dimensions of the triangle Using $g=18$, the height is $18-11 = 7$ meters and the base is $18-8 = 10$ meters.
The dimensions of the triangle are: Base: 10 meters Height: 7 meters
More Information
The value of $g$ is 18. We can check our answer by plugging the base and height into the area formula: $A = (1/2) \cdot 10 \cdot 7 = 35$ square meters, which matches the given area.
Tips
A common mistake is to forget to multiply both sides of the equation by 2 after substituting the values into the area formula, or to make errors when expanding or factoring the quadratic equation. Also, one must remember to check the validity of the solutions, as negative dimensions are not possible.
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