Irregular exagon

Geometry Level 2

All the green triangles above are equilateral triangles.

What is the area of the triangle labelled as A A ( \big( in cm 2 ) ? \text{cm}^2\big)?


The answer is 10.5.

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4 solutions

By changing the position of the triangles you get to something like the photo above. Then the area labeled as A is just the area of a rectangular trapezium less the area of white triangles.

I've solved it by trigonometry, haven't thought that geometric proof is much simple and easy

Bhaskar Pandey - 4 years, 2 months ago
Marta Reece
Mar 3, 2017

The white triangle on the left has a hypotenuse equal 5. So the left side of bottom white triangle is also 5 (since the left green triangle is equilateral). White triangle on the right has left leg equal 3 (since the top green triangle is equilateral), and the right leg also (the 4 5 45^\circ -angle makes it an isosceles triangle). So the hypotenuse of the right white triangle, and therefore also the right side of the bottom white triangle, is 3 × 2 3\times \sqrt{2} . The angle between these two known sides of the bottom white triangle is 36 0 3 × 6 0 4 5 a r c t a n ( 4 3 ) 81.8 7 360^\circ-3\times 60^\circ-45^\circ-arctan(\frac{4}{3})\approx 81.87^\circ . The area A A , calculated from two sides and an angle in between, is A = 1 2 × 5 × 3 2 × s i n ( 81.8 7 ) = 10.5 A=\frac{1}{2}\times 5 \times 3\sqrt{2}\times sin(81.87^\circ)=10.5

Ahmad Saad
Mar 1, 2017

Isaac Lu
Mar 1, 2017

x + y + 45 + 60 + 60 + 60 = 360 x+y+45+60+60+60=360

y = 135 x y = 135 - x

Law of Cosine in Triangle A.

M 2 = ( 5 ) 2 + ( 3 2 ) 2 2 ( 5 ) ( 3 2 ) cos ( y ) M^2 = (5)^2 + (3\sqrt{2})^2 - 2(5)(3\sqrt{2})\cos(y)

M 2 = 25 + 18 ( 30 2 ) cos ( 135 x ) M^2 = 25 + 18 - (30\sqrt{2})\cos(135-x)

cos ( 135 x ) = cos ( 135 ) cos ( x ) + sin ( 135 ) sin ( x ) \Rightarrow\cos(135-x)=\cos(135)\cos(x)+\sin(135)\sin(x)

cos ( 135 x ) = 2 2 ( 3 5 ) + 2 2 ( 4 5 ) \Rightarrow\cos(135-x)=\displaystyle\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2}\left(\frac{3}{5}\right)+\displaystyle\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}\left(\frac{4}{5}\right)

cos ( 135 x ) = 2 10 \Rightarrow\cos(135-x)=\displaystyle\frac{\sqrt{2}}{10}

M 2 = 25 + 18 ( 30 2 ) ( 2 10 ) \displaystyle M^2 = 25 + 18 - (30\sqrt{2})\left(\frac{\sqrt{2}}{10}\right)

M 2 = 43 6 M^2 = 43 - 6

M = 37 cm M = \sqrt{37} \text{ cm}

Sides of Triangle A: 5 cm , 3 2 cm , and 37 cm \displaystyle5\text{ cm}, 3\sqrt{2}\text{ cm}, \text{ and }\sqrt{37}\text{ cm}

Heron's Formula for area of triangle given three sides:

A = p ( p a ) ( p b ) ( p c ) \displaystyle A=\sqrt{p(p-a)(p-b)(p-c)}

where p = a + b + c 2 \displaystyle{p=\frac{a+b+c}{2}}

Solving for the area, we get A = 10.5 cm \boxed{\displaystyle\text{A }=10.5\text{ cm}}

Sad to say, that is the way I figured it out, Law of Cosines to get the missing side, the Heron to get the area from sides alone. Seems like it must be the "hard way" but the necessary quantities are easily derived from the given information.

Robert DeLisle - 4 years, 1 month ago

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