Question

A sail is in the form of a right triangle that is four times as high as it is wide. The sail is made from 18 square meters of material. What is it's height?

Answer 1

We can use the formula for area of a triangle to solve this problem A = (1/2)ab  where a is the altitude or height and b is the base     also we know that a = 4b in this problem and we know that A = 18 sq ft so 18 = (1/2)(4b)b 18 = 2b2 9 = b2 b = 3   so the base is 3 and the height is 4 times that a = 4(3) = 12  (height of the sail Hope this helps

Answer 2

Let the width (base) be w.  Then the height is 4w.  The area of this right triangle is then (base)(height)/2, which must equal 18 square meters.

Substituting the base and height:

(w)(4w)=18 square meters

Thus, 4w^2=18 square meters.  Solving for w, w^2=18/4, or w=+9 meters.  The height is 4 times that:  h = 4(9 meters) = 36 meters.