Question 3
Find the area of a triangle, given that its sides are and long, and its perimeter is .
- To find the area of a triangle when all three sides are known, we use Heron's formula: where are the side lengths and is the semi-perimeter ().
- Given two sides ( and ) and the total perimeter (), we first find the unknown third side by subtracting the sum of the two given sides from the perimeter.
Step 1 · Find the Third Side
Let the two given sides be and , and let the third side be .
Step 2 · Calculate the Semi-Perimeter
The semi-perimeter is half of the perimeter:
Step 3 · Apply Heron's Formula
Using Heron's formula:
Substitute , , , and :
- Using Perimeter instead of Semi-Perimeter: Substituting instead of into Heron's formula.
- Radical Simplification Error: Factoring incorrectly under the square root; simplify as .
- Unit Omission: Forgetting that area must be expressed in square units () rather than linear units ().
More questions in Exercise 6.2
Find the area of triangle ADE in Fig. 6.31.
The parallel sides of a trapezium are and . If its non-parallel sides are both equal, each being , find the area of the trapezium.
Find the area of a triangle, given that its sides are and long, and its perimeter is .
The sides of a triangular plot are in the ratio ; its perimeter is . Find its area.
One diagonal of a rhombus is twice as long as the other diagonal. If the rhombus has area , find the length of the shorter diagonal.
is a parallelogram. and are any two points on side . What can you say about the ratio ?
is any point on the diagonal of a parallelogram . Prove that the areas of triangles and are equal.
If the mid-points of the sides of a 4-gon (also known as a quadrilateral, but we prefer to call it a ‘4-gon’) are joined in order, prove that the area of the parallelogram thus formed will be half of the area of the given 4-gon. (You may wonder whether the 4-gon thus formed is always a parallelogram, and if so, why? These questions will be tackled and answered in the chapter on quadrilaterals.)
In , the midpoint of is (Fig. 6.32). Median is drawn. is any point on . Show that .
Given a square , let be a point within it. Join , , , (Fig. 6.33). What is the ratio of the areas of the red region ( and ) and the green region ( and )?
In , is the midpoint of . is any point on , and is a point on such that . is joined (Fig. 6.34). Prove that