<PRE><B>Question 814752</B>
The sides of an isosceles triangle are 27, 27, and 12yd long.
 What is the area of the triangle?
:
We need to find the height of the triangle to find the area
:
Draw the triangle, with the base as 12 yd, draw the height, a perpendicular line from the center of the base, bisecting the top angle.
Note that you have two right triangles,
one leg is half the base, 6
one leg is the height h
one side is the hypotenuse, 27
Using pythag
6^2 + h^2 = 27^2
36 + h^2 = 729
h^2 = 729 - 36
h^2 = 693
h = {{{sqrt(693)}}} is the height of the triangle
:
A = {{{1/2}}}b*h
A = {{{1/2}}}*{{{12*sqrt(693)}}}
Using your calc
A = 157.949
A = 157.9 sq/yds</PRE>