Question

You work as an assistant to a carpenter who designed the tabletop below. He tells you that each shape is a right triangle, and each is the same size. You now need to calculate the area of one triangle so that you can begin building the tabletop. What is the area of each triangle in square inches? 28 1/4" and 20"

Answer 1

Answer:

A. 200 square inches

Step-by-step explanation:

First, use Pythagorean Theorem to find the base of each triangle.

$a^2+b^2=c^2\\20^2+b^2=(28\frac{1}{4})^2\\400+b^2=798.0625\\b^2=398.0625\\b=\sqrt{398.0625}\\b=19.9515037$

Finally, use the area of a triangle formula to find the area of each triangle.

$A=\frac{1}{2}bh\\A=\frac{1}{2}(19.9515037)(20)\\A=199.515037$

Therefore, the area of each triangle is approximately 200 in².