Question

Please help! The area of a triangle is 15 square meters. The base is 1 meter less than the height. What is the height of the triangle?

Answer 1

`b = h - 1`

`A = \frac 1 2 b h = \frac 1 2 (h-1) h`

`15 = \frac 1 2 (h-1)(h)`

`30 = h^2 - h`

`h^2 - h - 30 =0`

`(h-6)(h+5)=0`

`h=6 \textrm{ or } h=-5`

We can reject the negative height

Answer: 6 meters, second choice