Equilateral triangle

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...

Drawing of the equilateral triangle.

The equilateral triangle is the regular polygon simplest. Its three sides are equal. Therefore, their angles are also the three equal.

Since all angles are equal and the angles are the sum of 180º, their three interior angles are 60º (180º/3=60º).

Note: Why do they add their angles 180º?

Altitude of an Equilateral Triangle

Drawing of the equilateral triangle to calculate its height

The altitude (h) of the equilateral triangle (or the height) can be calculated from Pythagorean theorem. The sides a, a/2 and h form a right triangle. The sides a/2 and h are the legs and a the hypotenuse.

Applying the Pythagorean theorem:

Calculation of the height of the equilateral triangle.

And we obtain that the height (h) of equilateral triangle is:

Formula for the height of the equilateral triangle

Drawing of the equilateral triangle for the calculation of its height for trigonometric ratios

Another procedure to calculate its height would be from trigonometric ratios.

With respect to the angle of 60º, the ratio between altitude h and the hypotenuse of triangle a is equal to sine of 60º. Therefore:

Calculation of the height of the equilateral triangle for trigonometric ratios

Area of an Equilateral Triangle

Drawing of the equilateral triangle

An equilateral triangle has three equal sides and angles. As in any type of triangle, its area is equal to half of the product of its base and height. So if the altitude of an equilateral triangle is:

Formula for the height of the equilateral triangle

The area it will be defined by the following formula:

Formula of the area of an equilateral triangle

Perimeter of an equilateral triangle

Drawing the perimeter of an equilateral triangle

The equilateral triangle has all three sides equal, so its perimeter will be three times the length of one of its sides (a).

Formula of the perimeter of an equilateral triangle

Download this calculator to get the results of the formulas on this page. Choose the initial data and enter it in the upper left box. For results, press ENTER.

Triangle-total.rar         or   Triangle-total.exe      

Note. Courtesy of the author: José María Pareja Marcano. Chemist. Seville, Spain.

Resolved Exercises

Exercise of the Equilateral Triangle Area

Example 1 of equilateral triangle for calculating your area.

Find the area of an equilateral triangle in which its three equal sides have the length a=5 cm.

What is its area?

Applying the above formula:

Example 1 of the area of an equilateral triangle.

The area is 10.83 cm2.

Exercise of the Equilateral Triangle Perimeter

Drawing of the equilateral triangle example 1 for perimeter calculation.

Being a equilateral triangle with all sides equal in length a=5 cm.

What is its perimeter?

Applying the above formula:

Example of the perimeter of an equilateral triangle.

We obtain that the perimeter of this equilateral triangle is 15 cm.


AUTHOR: Bernat Requena Serra

YEAR: 2018


IF YOU LIKED IT, SHARE IT!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *