All ACT Math Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : 45/45/90 Right Isosceles Triangles
The area of an isosceles right triangle is . What is its height that is correlative and perpendicular to a side that is not the hypotenuse?
Recall that an isosceles right triangle is a triangle. That means that it looks like this:
This makes calculating the area very easy! Recall, the area of a triangle is defined as:
However, since for our triangle, we know:
Now, we know that . Therefore, we can write:
Solving for , we get:
This is the length of the height of the triangle for the side that is not the hypotenuse.
Example Question #2 : 45/45/90 Right Isosceles Triangles
What is the area of an isosceles right triangle that has an hypotenuse of length ?
Based on the information given, you know that your triangle looks as follows:
This is a triangle. Recall your standard triangle:
You can set up the following ratio between these two figures:
Now, the area of the triangle will merely be (since both the base and the height are ). For your data, this is:
Example Question #191 : Plane Geometry
Find the height of an isoceles right triangle whose hypotenuse is
To solve simply realize the hypotenuse of one of these triangles is of the form where s is side length. Thus, our answer is .
Example Question #1 : How To Find The Height Of A 45/45/90 Right Isosceles Triangle
The area of an isosceles right triangle is . What is its height that is correlative and perpendicular to this triangle's hypotenuse?
Recall that an isosceles right triangle is a triangle. That means that it looks like this:
This makes calculating the area very easy! Recall, the area of a triangle is defined as:
However, since for our triangle, we know:
Now, we know that . Therefore, we can write:
Solving for , we get:
However, be careful! Notice what the question asks: "What is its height that is correlative and perpendicular to this triangle's hypotenuse?" First, let's find the hypotenuse of the triangle. Recall your standard triangle:
Since one of your sides is , your hypotenuse is .
Okay, what you are actually looking for is in the following figure:
Therefore, since you know the area, you can say:
Solving, you get: .