Question

A triangular tent door has area 15 square feet. The height is five feet. What is the length of the base?

Short answer

6 feet is the length of the base of a triangular tent door.

Step-by-step solution

Step 1. Given Information

• A triangular tent door has area 15 square feet.
• The height is five feet.

We want to know base of a triangular tent door.

Step 2. Name. 

Choose a variable to represent it.

Let b = the base of triangular tent door.

Draw the figure and label it with the given information.

Area = 15 sq. in.

Step 3. Translate.

Write the appropriate formula.

$A=\frac{1}{2}\times b\times h$

Substitute in the given information.

role="math" localid="1646065601637" $15=\frac{1}{2}\times b\times 5$

Step 4. Solve the equation. 15=52×b

Multiply both sides by$\frac{2}{5}$

$$\begin{gathered} \frac{2}{5}\times 15=\frac{2}{5}\times \frac{5}{2}\times b \\ 6=b \end{gathered}$$

Step 5. Check. 

$$\begin{gathered} A=\frac{1}{2}\times b\times h \\ A=\frac{1}{2}\times 6\times 5 \\ A=15 \end{gathered}$$

Verified