## anonymous 3 years ago If the area of the triangle is 36cm2, what is the length, in cm, of leg xy. i missed class and i cant figure it out

1. PhoenixFire

Leg xy is where? Can you draw a picture? What's the height of the triangle?

2. anonymous

it doesnt give me one i can try and draw one

3. PhoenixFire

$A={1 \over 2}bh$ |dw:1354695650945:dw|

4. anonymous

|dw:1354695794159:dw|

5. anonymous

thats what it gives me

6. anonymous

XY is on the bottom by the way forgot to add all that

7. PhoenixFire

|dw:1354695885781:dw|

8. anonymous

no it is not. all it gives me is the area which is 36cm2

9. anonymous

i want to say its 12 but not sure

10. anonymous

since 36 is a perfect square.$\frac{ 1 }{ 2}(12)(6)=36cm^{2}$

11. anonymous

the base has to be 12

12. anonymous

thats what im thinking

13. anonymous

it gives me 5 different answers to pick from 6,9,12,18,24

14. PhoenixFire

No. $(0.5)(24)(3)=36$

15. anonymous

so your saying 24 would be the length of leg xy?

16. tamtoan

@winterfez, that's incorrect, since 72 = 36x2 = 9x8= 18x4 and so on.. , many possibilities , i think phoenixfire leads him on the right track, need more info on this to solve.

17. anonymous

well for this question you need to know either the height or the base

18. PhoenixFire

Could be a lot of different numbers. You're missing information.

19. anonymous

i can take a picture of the diagram on my cell and upload it for you guys to see the diagram given to me

20. anonymous

$\frac{ 1 }{ 2}bh=36cm ^{2}$ I don't think you can find from this equation. Like PhoenixFire point out you need to know 1 more information for either base or height

21. anonymous

give me a few i will upload a photo with everything given to me

22. anonymous

23. anonymous

that is what they have given me to work with

24. PhoenixFire

Leg XY is twice as long as YZ. That's the info we needed. Let b=XY and h=2b $A={1 \over 2}2b^2=b^2$$\sqrt{36}=b=6$ Your leg XY=6 and YZ=12

25. tamtoan

phoenixfire, you got the other way around :) XY is twice as long as YZ :)

26. anonymous

sorry bout that. my bad. this is my first time using this site. i thought i mentioned it. but thank you very much PhoenixFire, tamotan, and winterfez.

27. anonymous

so the length of leg xy is 24?

28. PhoenixFire

I see. b=2h h=YZ $A={1 \over 2}2h^2=h^2$$h=\sqrt{36}=6$ $b=2h=2(6)=12$ XY = 12

29. tamtoan

there :)

30. PhoenixFire

My bad for that mistake. haha, Thanks @tamtoan

31. anonymous

alright so its 12 like i thought lol:) i was confused. normally im good at math. but missing class and then getting this confused me

32. tamtoan

np phoenixfire :) i made mistakes all the time :) sometimes it's too easy that we are careless, anyway, good night all, bed time for me :)

33. anonymous

thank you both for helping me. i did become fans and i think gave a medal? but thanks alot!!!

34. PhoenixFire

np :) Good Luck

35. anonymous

thank you