document.write( "Question 958237: The South Memorial School is designing a new playground. There will be a walkway that diagnolly crosses the square playground. The walkway is 55 meters long. Include a sketch of the playground and find the lenght of one side. Round your answer to the nearest 10th.\r
\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "That's my problem but I can't solve, I don't think it provides enough information. Any one know what to do?
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Algebra.Com's Answer #585620 by addingup(3677)\"\" \"About 
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
You are dealing with a very special triangle, it's called an isosceles right triangle because it has two sides of the same length and two 45 degree angles.
\n" ); document.write( "Did you sketch it like the problem asks you to? I did, see below.
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\n" ); document.write( "Isosceles right triangles have a special relationship among the sides, 1:1:sqrt2 and one way to find the sides is using the \"pattern formula\", which applies ONLY to these special triangles:
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\n" ); document.write( "Hypotenuse= Leg*sqrt2
\n" ); document.write( "But since we want to know the Legs, we divide both sides by sqrt2 and have:
\n" ); document.write( "L= H/sqrt2= 1/2H*sqrt2. Since our hypotenuse is 55:
\n" ); document.write( "L= 1/2*55*sqrt2= (55*1)/2*sqrt2= 27.5*sqrt2
\n" ); document.write( "The square root of 2 is 1.414, so multiply:
\n" ); document.write( "27.5*1.414= 38.9 is the length of each side.
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\n" ); document.write( "You can also solve it applying trigonometry, remember SOHCAHTOA. Since we know the hypotenuse, let's use CAH (Cosine Adjacent Hypotenuse):
\n" ); document.write( "Cos45= L/55 Let's flip the equation, it will look better:
\n" ); document.write( "L/55= Cos45 Calculate the cosine of 45 (your calculator):
\n" ); document.write( "L/55= 0.707 Multiply both sides times 55
\n" ); document.write( "L= 38.9 Oh, what a surprise, we got the same answer both ways ;-)
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