Question

The length of the base of an isosceles triangle is 4 inches less than the length of one of the two equal sides of the triangles. If the perimeter is 32, what are the lengths of each of the three sides of the triangle?

Answer 1

The sides are `8, 12, and 12`.

Explanation:

We can start out by creating an equation that can represent the information that we have. We know that the total perimeter is `32` inches. We can represent each side with parenthesis. Since we know other 2 sides besides the base are equal, we can use that to our advantage.

Our equation looks like this: `(x-4)+(x)+(x) = 32`. We can say this because the base is `4` less than the other two sides, `x`. When we solve this equation, we get `x=12`.

If we plug this in for each side, we get `8, 12, and 12`. When added, that comes out to a perimeter of `32`, which means our sides are right.