document.write( "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? \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #634077 by addingup(3677)![]() ![]() 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). \n" ); document.write( "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. \n" ); document.write( "Then, per Phythagoras: \n" ); document.write( "sqrt(6.5^2-2.5^2)= long leg, which also happens to be the height we are looking for: \n" ); document.write( "sqrt(42.25-6.25)= 6 this is height of Larry's tent. \n" ); document.write( " \r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( " |