Quadratic Word Problem!!

spadda

New member
Joined
May 24, 2011
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7
hey guys,

i was wondering if anyone could help me out with this word problem, or point me in the right direction, im totally lost!

"A right triangle has a base that is 2 more than twice the height. Find the length of the base of the triangle if the area is 30 square units."

thanks in advance!!
 
First, thanks for the bit of humor in the title. What's a "quadratic word"? You probably mean, "Word Problem leading to a quadratic equation" - or something like that.

Formula for Area of Traingle: ½ * Base * Height

"base that is 2 more than twice the height"

Base = 2 + 2*Height and this leads to ½ * Base * Height = ½ * (2 + 2*Height) * Height

"the area is 30 square units"

½ * (2 + 2*Height) * Height = 30

See how we do our best to translate directly from English to suitable notation? This may require some practice.

Notice how we did not use the fact that this is a Right Triangle. Extraneous information is a bit unusual.
 
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