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Calculate the area of this triangle - OCR - GCSE Maths - Question 18 - 2018 - Paper 1

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Question 18

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Calculate the area of this triangle. 5.8 cm 3.9 cm 6.4 cm Not to scale

Worked Solution & Example Answer:Calculate the area of this triangle - OCR - GCSE Maths - Question 18 - 2018 - Paper 1

Step 1

Step 1: Find the Missing Angle Using the Cosine Rule

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Answer

To find the area of the triangle, we first need to use the cosine rule to find one of the angles. We denote the sides as follows:

  • a = 6.4 cm
  • b = 5.8 cm
  • c = 3.9 cm

Using the cosine rule:

c2=a2+b22abcos(C)c^2 = a^2 + b^2 - 2ab \cos(C)

Substituting the values:

(3.9)2=(6.4)2+(5.8)22(6.4)(5.8)cos(C)(3.9)^2 = (6.4)^2 + (5.8)^2 - 2 \cdot (6.4) \cdot (5.8) \cdot \cos(C)

Solving this will give us the value for cos(C), and hence the angle C.

Step 2

Step 2: Calculate the Area of the Triangle Using the Sine Formula

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Answer

With the angle C determined, we can calculate the area of the triangle using the formula:

Area=12absin(C)\text{Area} = \frac{1}{2}ab \sin(C)

Substituting the values for a, b, and the angle C we calculated:

Area=126.45.8sin(C)\text{Area} = \frac{1}{2} \cdot 6.4 \cdot 5.8 \cdot \sin(C)

Solving this will give the area in square centimeters.

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