SOLUTION: the height of a triangular sail is 6 yards less than twice the length of its base. if the area of the sail is 70 square yards, find the dimensions of the sail The length of the

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Question 811184: the height of a triangular sail is 6 yards less than twice the length of its base. if the area of the sail is 70 square yards, find the dimensions of the sail
The length of the base of the triangular sail is ___yards and its height is ___yards
((((PICTURE SHOWN )))))
Base is x
Leg is 2x-6
Hypotenuse is blank.
Answer by KMST(5328) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
For a triangle,
area=base%2Aheight%2F2
For the sail
base=xyards
height=%282x-6%29yards
The area, in square yards is
x%282x-6%29%2F2=70
x%282x-6%29=2%2A70
2x%5E2-6x=140
2x%5E2-6x-140=0
x%5E2-3x-70=0
%28x-10%29%28x%2B7%29=0
The solutions to that equation are
x=10 and x=-7 , but x=-7 cannot be the length, in yards, of the base of a sail. It should be a positive number.
So the base of the sail measures highlight%28x=10%29yards ,
and the height measures 2x-6=2%2A10-6=20-6=highlight%2814%29yards .