Question

An equilateral triangle has a side length of 10 inches. find the length of the triangle altitude

Answer 1

An equilateral triangle has all side lengths the same, and all angles are 60 degrees. Using this we can split the triangle along its altitude to get two right triangles with a hypotenuse of length 10 and a base of 1/2 of the original length, so 5. Now we can either use the Pythagorean theorem (a^2+b^2=c^2) or the fact that it is a 30 60 90 triangle (angles measure at 30 60 and 90 degrees) Pythagorean theorem is probably easier.
It stated that the squares of the two legs of a right triangle add to the square of the hypotenuse. So a(the altitude)^2+5(the base)^2=10(the hypotenuse)^2
A^2+5^2=10^2
A^2+25=100
A^2=75
A=sqrt(75)
A=5*sqrt(3)

Final answer:
The altitude of an equilateral triangle with side length 10 is 5sqrt(3), or about 8.66