Question

A rectangle is to be inscribed in a right triangle having sides of length 6 in, 8 in, and 10 in. Find the dimensions of the rectangle with greatest area assuming the rectangle is positioned as in Figure 1. Figure1

Answer 1

Answer:  width = 2.4 in, length = 5

Step-by-step explanation:

The max area of a right triangle is half the area of the original triangle.

Area of the triangle = (6 x 8)/2  = 24

--> area of rectangle = 24 ÷ 2 = 12

Next, let's find the dimensions.

The length is adjacent to the hypotenuse. Since we know the area is half, we should also know that the length will be half of the hypotenuse.

length = 10 ÷ 2 = 5

Use the area formula to find the width:

A = length x width

12 = 5 w

12/5 = w

2.4 = w