Altitude

Geometry Level 3

A regular tetrahedron has a surface area of 100 3 100\sqrt{3} square units. Find its altitude. If your answer is in the form A ( B ) B C \frac{A(B)\sqrt{B}}{\sqrt{C}} , where A , B A,B and C C are all prime numbers, give your answer as A + B + C A+B+C .


The answer is 10.

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1 solution

The surface area of a regular tetrahedron is

A = s 2 3 A=s^2\sqrt{3}

100 3 = s 2 3 100\sqrt{3}=s^2\sqrt{3} \implies s = 10 s=10 \implies s 2 = 5 \dfrac{s}{2}=5

c o s 30 = 5 x cos~30=\frac{5}{x} but c o s 30 = 3 2 cos~30=\dfrac{\sqrt{3}}{2}

So,

3 2 = 5 x \frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}=\frac{5}{x} \implies x = 10 3 x=\dfrac{10}{\sqrt{3}}

By Pythagorean Theorem,

h 2 = s 2 x 2 h^2=s^2-x^2 \implies h 2 = 100 100 3 h^2=100-\dfrac{100}{3} \implies h = 5 ( 2 ) 2 3 h=\dfrac{5(2)\sqrt{2}}{\sqrt{3}}

\large\therefore A + B + C = 5 + 2 + 3 = 10 A+B+C=5+2+3=10

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