Find the length of the side of a rhombus which has area 40 and diagonals with lengths 2x and 3x - 2.
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The rhombus' area is just the sum of four congruent right triangles with side lengths x and 2 3 x − 2 , or:
2 1 ( x ) ( 2 3 x − 2 ) = 1 0 ⇒ 3 x 2 − 2 x − 4 0 = 0 ⇒ ( 3 x + 1 0 ) ( x − 4 ) = 0 ⇒ x = 4 , − 3 1 0
of which we only admit the former positive value. The side lengths for one of these right triangles are 4 and 2 3 ( 4 ) − 2 = 5 , which give the rhombus' side length (i.e. the hypothenuse) as 4 2 + 5 2 = 4 1 .