Rhombusted

Geometry Level 3

Find the length of the side of a rhombus which has area 40 and diagonals with lengths 2x and 3x - 2.


The answer is 6.4031.

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1 solution

Tom Engelsman
Nov 1, 2020

The rhombus' area is just the sum of four congruent right triangles with side lengths x x and 3 x 2 2 \frac{3x-2}{2} , or:

1 2 ( x ) ( 3 x 2 2 ) = 10 3 x 2 2 x 40 = 0 ( 3 x + 10 ) ( x 4 ) = 0 x = 4 , 10 3 \frac{1}{2}(x)(\frac{3x-2}{2}) = 10 \Rightarrow 3x^2 - 2x - 40 = 0 \Rightarrow (3x+10)(x-4) = 0 \Rightarrow x = 4, -\frac{10}{3}

of which we only admit the former positive value. The side lengths for one of these right triangles are 4 4 and 3 ( 4 ) 2 2 = 5 \frac{3(4)-2}{2} = 5 , which give the rhombus' side length (i.e. the hypothenuse) as 4 2 + 5 2 = 41 . \sqrt{4^2 + 5^2} = \boxed{\sqrt{41}}.

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