What is the area of an isosceles triangle with two equal sides of 10 cm and a base of 12 cm?
1 Answer
Nov 21, 2015
Area
Explanation:
Since an isosceles triangle has two equal sides, if the triangle is split in half vertically, the length of the base on each side is:
12 cm -:2 = 6 cm
We can then use the Pythagorean theorem to find the height of the triangle.
The formula for the Pythagorean theorem is:
a^2+b^2=c^2
To solve for the height, substitute your known values into the equation and solve for
where:
a^2+b^2=c^2
a^2=c^2-b^2
a^2=(10)^2-(6)^2
a^2=(100)-(36)
a^2=64
a=sqrt(64)
a=8
Now that we have our known values, substitute the following into the formula for area of a triangle:
Area=(base*height)/2
Area=((12)*(8))/2
Area=(96)/(2)
Area=48