SOLUTION: an equilateral triangle has a height of 16 inches. how long one of its sides? (Hint: use the height of the triangle to partition the triangle into two congruent right triangles)

Question 896236: an equilateral triangle has a height of 16 inches. how long one of its sides? (Hint: use the height of the triangle to partition the triangle into two congruent right triangles)
Answer by josgarithmetic(39617) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The height cuts the equilateral triangle into two 30-60-90 special triangles, both are right-triangles. A side of the equilateral triangle is a hypotenuse. You want to find the length of one of these sides, of length x.

, according to Pythagorean Theorem. The short side of the special triangle is HALF the length of the side for the equilateral triangle.

Solve for x.
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