sat suite question viewer
In triangle , angle is a right angle, the measure of angle is , and the length of is units. If the area, in square units, of triangle can be represented by the expression , where is a constant, what is the value of ?
Explanation
The correct answer is . The tangent of an acute angle in a right triangle is the ratio of the length of the leg opposite the angle to the length of the leg adjacent to the angle. In triangle , it's given that angle is a right angle. Thus, is the leg opposite of angle and is the leg adjacent to angle . It follows that . It's also given that the measure of angle is and the length of is units. Substituting for and for in the equation yields . Multiplying each side of this equation by yields . Therefore, the length of is . The area of a triangle is half the product of the lengths of its legs. Since the length of is and the length of is , it follows that the area of triangle is square units, or square units. It's given that the area, in square units, of triangle can be represented by the expression , where is a constant. Therefore, is the value of .