SOLUTION: Larry is going camping and his tent is the shape of a triangular prism with isosceles bases. The floor of the tent is 8 feet by 5 feet and the angled side is 6.5 feet long. Is 6 fe

Question 1017861: Larry is going camping and his tent is the shape of a triangular prism with isosceles bases. The floor of the tent is 8 feet by 5 feet and the angled side is 6.5 feet long. Is 6 feet an accurate height for this tent?
Answer by addingup(3677) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Larry's tent looks like the picture below. We don't care about the 8 feet side-length, the height of the prism is given by the triangle (see the red area).
If you draw a line down the middle of the triangle you have two identical right triangles each with a side of 6.5 and a base of 5/2= 2.5. In "triangle-speak" we now have a short leg of 2.5 and a hypotenuse of 6.5. We need to find the length of the long leg of the triangle.
Then, per Phythagoras:
sqrt(6.5^2-2.5^2)= long leg, which also happens to be the height we are looking for:
sqrt(42.25-6.25)= 6 this is height of Larry's tent.

RELATED QUESTIONS
A tent has the shape of a triangular prism. The triangular end of the tent has a base... (answered by solver91311)

A tent has the shape of a triangular prism. The triangular end of the tent has a base... (answered by ewatrrr)

A tent is in the shape of a triangular prism. It's base is 8 feet, height is 5 feet, and... (answered by Alan3354)

A family needs a tent that measures at least 10m^3 and the tent (isosceles triangular... (answered by CharlesG2)

A tent has the shape of a triangular prism. The volume of the tent is (x^3+7x^2+11x+5)... (answered by Theo)

You are going camping with your family for a family reunion. You need to know how many... (answered by greenestamps)

Miranda wants to know how much air her new tent can hold. If the tent is a triangular... (answered by greenestamps)

Hi a tent has the shape of a triangular prism with dimensions as follows:base 1.6m side... (answered by KMST)

Here is the question I need help with. I know I have all the parts of the questions on... (answered by mananth)