Triangle Help

HollaBack

New member
Joined
Aug 9, 2005
Messages
5
Here is a sample question I made up:
A backstop (two right angle triangles back to back) extends 24 feet 8 inches out in each direction and the center pole is 6.5 yards high. All sides of the backstop including base and the center pole are to be made of aluminum tubing. How many feet of tubing are needed to build the backstop?

How do I find the length of the missing piece of the triangle? I came up with the answer of 483.5ft squared but that sounds way too big.

KC
 
Still not quite sure of the backstop shape, however if you know the height of 6.5 yards (change this to feet and inch) and the base of the triangle is 24 feet and 8 inch then the missing side of the triangle is found by using
c^2 = a^2 + b^2
where a is the height
b is the base
and c is the long side( and the unknown side)

The amount of tubing required will be measured in feet (not square feet) and is is the sum of each of the sides.

Does this help?
 
Follow Up

Everything except the ^ symbol what does that stand for? Isn't this a similar formula for finding the area inside or is the 1/2 base 8 height? Thanks for the rapid reply.

KC
 
The symbol ^ means squared ie 6^2 = 6 x 6 = 36


so if you have c^2 = 4 ^ 2 + 3 ^ 2
= 4 x 4 + 3 x 3
= 16 + 9
C^2 = 25
square root c = square root 25
c = 5 (don't forget the units)
 
part 2 of reply

Area of a triangle = 1/2 base x Height
this is the formula you are using, but you do not want area but perimeter.
 
Think I have it

So I would take the base 296in * 296in = 87616in and the height 234in * 234in= 54756 + 87616 so C^2= 142372in = 377.3221. Correct?? Also in my last response was I right on the area calculation of 1/2 base * height = area?
 
HollaBack said:
Here is a sample question I made up:
A backstop (two right angle triangles back to back) extends 24 feet 8 inches out in each direction and the center pole is 6.5 yards high. All sides of the backstop including base and the center pole are to be made of aluminum tubing. How many feet of tubing are needed to build the backstop?
How do I find the length of the missing piece of the triangle? I came up with the answer of 483.5ft squared but that sounds way too big.
KC

Boy...you can sure write something simple in a complicated way!

2 identical right triangles with legs 19'6" and 24'8" share leg 19'6".
So the backstop is an isosceles triangle with base 49'4" and height 19'6".

The unknown side = sqrt[(24 2/3)^2 + (19 1/2)^2] = 31.44~ feet.

So tubing = 2(31.44) + 49.33 + 19.50 = 131.71 feet approximately.

Try this one; same problem, with:
Center pole = 18 feet.
Extension = 24 feet in both directions.
 
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