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| Math Central | Quandaries & Queries |
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Question from hazel, a student: how to solve the diagonals of an isosceles trapezoid? what is the formula? |
Hazel,
If you know the lengths of the sides you can use Pythagoras theorem twice to determine the lengths of the diagonals.
I let the lengths of the parallel sixes be x and y units with y > x. The two equal length sides have length z. PT is perpendicular to PT.
|TS| = (y - x)/2 and |PS| = z and hence you can use Pythagoras theorem to find |PT|. |RT| = y - |TS| and thus you can use Pythagoras theorem again to find |RP|.
Harley
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