Question

Please help me find x and y. Give a real answer that is correct.

Answer 1

Answers:

x = 5/2 = 2.5

y = 10

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Explanation:

Focus on the smallest triangle and the medium sized triangle. We can form the proportion 2/4 = x/5 by dividing the corresponding sides together.

Solving for x leads us to the following

2/4 = x/5

2*5 = 4*x

10 = 4x

4x = 10

x = 10/4

x = 5/2

x = 2.5

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Now focus on the medium sized triangle and the largest triangle. We'll use the same idea as before

4/8 = 5/y

4y = 8*5

4y = 40

y = 40/4

y = 10

Note how each horizontal line is a midsegment, which means that jumping from y = 10 to 5 is us taking half of that value. Then going from 5 to x = 5/2 = 2.5 is another step of cutting in half.