Question

What is the length of the shortest altitude in a triangle, if the lengths of the sides are 24 cm, 25 cm, 7 cm?

Answer 1

Answer:

The shortest altitude is 6.72 cm

Step-by-step explanation:

Given that the side lengths are

24 cm, 25 cm, 7 cm

The area of a triangle =

$A = \sqrt{s \cdot (s-a)\cdot (s-b)\cdot (s-c)}$

Where;

s = Half the perimeter = (24 + 25 +  7)/2 = 28

A = √((28×(28 - 24)×(28 - 25)×(28 - 7)) = 84 cm²

We note that 84/7 = 12

Therefore, the triangle is a right triangle with hypotenuse = 25, and legs, 24 and 7, the height of the triangle = 7

To find the shortest altitude, we utilize the formula for the area of the triangle A = 1/2 base × Altitude

Altitude  = A/(1/2 ×base)

Therefore, the altitude is inversely proportional to the base, and to reduce the altitude, we increase the base as follows;

We set the base to 25 cm to get;

Area of the triangle A =  1/2 × base × Altitude

84 = 1/2 × 25 × Altitude

Altitude = 84/(1/2 × 25) = 6.72 cm

The shortest altitude = 6.72 cm.