A triangle has sides A, B, and C. The angle between sides A and B is (pi)/2 and the angle between sides B and C is pi/6. If side B has a length of 5, what is the area of the triangle?
1 Answer
Mar 19, 2016
since one of the angles is 90 degrees, we have a right triangle with 90 / 30 and 60 degree angles.
tan 30 = opp/adj
tan 30 = A/B sides given
so A = 5tan30 or approximately 2.89
the area of a triangle is A = 1/2 base x height
we already know the base and height of this right triangle as they are the two legs of the right triangle (A and B)
using base of 5 and height of 2.89, we obtain the area as:
A = 1/2 x (5)(2.89) or approx. 7.22 square units
