Homework Help: algebra

Posted by Anonymous on Monday, January 16, 2012 at 6:09pm.

A triangle has an area of 20 inches squared. Every dimension of the triangle is multiplied by a scale factor, and the new triangle has an area of 180 inches squared. What is the scale factor.

algebra - Steve, Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 10:20am
if a rectangle (or any 2-dimensional figure) is scaled by a factor of n, then

length l becomes nl
width w becomes nw
area lw becomes (nl)(nw) = n^2(lw) = n^2 times the old area

For your rectangle, the new area is 9 times the old area, so the scale factor is √9 = 3

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