
Home > CCG > Chapter 7 > Lesson 7.2.3 > Problem 7-78
7-78.
Tromika wants to find the area of the isosceles triangle below.
She decided to start by drawing a height from vertex
to side as shown at right. Will the two smaller triangles be congruent? In other words, is ? Why or why not?
Look at the two triangles that are created. They share a side, and the ticks marks mean the sides are equal. How could they be congruent?
Yes, they are congruent by
.
What is
? ? If the segment (height) bisects both
and segment , how can you calculate the measure of half of each? Find
. Show how you got your answer. Which trig ratio can you use to determine this length?
Find the area of
. How do you find the area of a triangle? Do you have enough information to calculate the area?