Question

The height of a triangle is 5 less than its base. The area of the triangle is 42 square inches. Find the height and base

Answer 1

This can be solved using simple algebra.

Let's take the base as x

It's give that the height is the base - 5.

So, the height is (x - 5)

Now plug those in the formula for finding the area of the triangle and you get:

(x^2 - 5x)/2 = 42

x^2 - 5x = 84

x (x - 5) = 84

After solving the equation, you get x = 12 and x = -7. Since lengths can't be negative, we ignore the one with the negative value.

Since x was the base, the base = 12 and the height was x - 5 so 12 - 5 = 7

:D