The perimeter of an isosceles triangle is 32 cm. the base is 2 cm longer than the length of one of the congruent sides. What is the area of the triangle?

1 Answer
Nov 14, 2015

Our sides are #10, 10, and 12.#

Explanation:

We can start out by creating an equation that can represent the information that we have. We know that the total perimeter is #32# inches. We can represent each side with parenthesis. Since we know other 2 sides besides the base are equal, we can use that to our advantage.

Our equation looks like this: #(x+2)+(x)+(x) = 32#. We can say this because the base is #2# more than the other two sides, #x#. When we solve this equation, we get #x=10#.

If we plug this in for each side, we get #12, 10 and 10#. When added, that comes out to a perimeter of #32#, which means our sides are right.