Problema Solution

The height of a triangle is 3cm less then the length of its base, and its area is 27cm^2. Find the height.

Answer provided by our tutors

Let 'x' represent the length of the base, x>0.

x - 3 is the height

A = 27 cm^2

Since A = (1/2)(base*height) we have:

(1/2)x(x - 3) = 27

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click here to see the equation solved for x

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x = 9 cm

We need to ignore the negative solution -6 since the height can not be negative.

x + 3 = 9 + 3 = 12 cm

The height is 12 cm.