Math  /  Geometry

QuestionUse Heron's formula to find the area of the triangle. Round to the nearest square foot. Side a=8a=8 feet Side b=8b=8 feet Side c=4c=4 feet
The area is approximately \square square feet.

Studdy Solution

STEP 1

What is this asking? We need to find the area of a triangle given the lengths of its three sides, and we're going to use Heron's awesome formula to do it! Watch out! Don't forget to find the semi-perimeter first before plugging values into Heron's formula.
Also, remember to round to the nearest square foot at the end.

STEP 2

1. Calculate the semi-perimeter
2. Apply Heron's Formula
3. Round to the nearest square foot

STEP 3

The **semi-perimeter**, often denoted by ss, is half the sum of the lengths of all three sides of the triangle.
It's like finding the perimeter and then cutting it in half!
We have side a=8a = 8 feet, side b=8b = 8 feet, and side c=4c = 4 feet.

STEP 4

Let's **add** all the side lengths together: 8+8+4=208 + 8 + 4 = 20 feet.
This is the **perimeter**.
Now, we **divide** this by 22 to get the **semi-perimeter**: s=202=10s = \frac{20}{2} = 10 feet.
So, our **semi-perimeter** ss is **10** feet!

STEP 5

Heron's formula is a super cool way to find the area of a triangle when you know the lengths of all three sides.
The formula is: Area=s(sa)(sb)(sc) \text{Area} = \sqrt{s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)} where ss is the **semi-perimeter**, and aa, bb, and cc are the lengths of the sides.

STEP 6

We already found that s=10s = 10 feet.
Now, let's **plug in** all the values: Area=10(108)(108)(104) \text{Area} = \sqrt{10(10-8)(10-8)(10-4)}

STEP 7

Let's **simplify** inside the parentheses: Area=10226 \text{Area} = \sqrt{10 \cdot 2 \cdot 2 \cdot 6}

STEP 8

Now, let's **multiply** those numbers together: Area=240 \text{Area} = \sqrt{240}

STEP 9

Finally, let's **calculate** the square root: Area15.49193338 \text{Area} \approx 15.49193338

STEP 10

We found that the area is approximately 15.4919333815.49193338 square feet.
Since we need to round to the nearest square foot, we look at the digit after the decimal point.
It's a 44, which is less than 55, so we round *down*.

STEP 11

Our **final answer** is approximately 1515 square feet.

STEP 12

The area of the triangle is approximately 1515 square feet.

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