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| Math Central | Quandaries & Queries |
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Question from devon, a student: hay ok i have the height of a triangle but how do i find the length of the side if all of the sides are the same length |
Hi Devon,
Suppose the triangle is ABC and the length of each side is a units. If you draw a line from A to meet the line BC at D and this line is perpendicular to BC then the length of AD is the height h of the triangle.
The point D is the midpoint of BC (do you see why?) and hence the length of DC is a/2. Since triangle ADC is a right triangle you can use Pythagoras' theorem to find a.
Penny
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