Expert: Lynn Houston - 1/28/2009

Question
i have a triangle  with a total square meter measurement  of 68sq meters.  How do I work out what lengths are?.

Answer
the area of a triangle is bh/2 where b = base and h = height so the answer could be any infinite number of possibilities.  If you want the measurements of any triangle with an area of 68 sq m, then the easiest thing to do is make the triangle a right angle and pick any two numbers for the height and base that equals 68.  Then use the Pythagorean theorem to figure out the length of the hypotenuse.

Let use 17 for the base and 4 for the height (which eqs 68) and then we know that 17^2 + 4^2 = c^2
289 + 16 = c^2
305 = c^2
c = 17.5