Browse · MATH
Printjmc
prealgebra senior
Problem
The altitude to the hypotenuse of a triangle with angles of 30 and 60 degrees is 3 units. What is the area of the triangle, in square units? Express your answer in simplest radical form. 
Solution
Let , , and be the vertices of the right triangle corresponding to the 60, 90, and 30 degree angles, respectively. Also, let be the foot of the perpendicular from to the hypotenuse . Notice that is a 30-60-90 triangle. The longer leg of a 30-60-90 is times the shorter leg, so units. The hypotenuse of a 30-60-90 triangle is twice the shorter leg, so units. Since is a 30-60-90 triangle as well, units. The area of is square units.
Final answer
6\sqrt{3}