Question

The sides of a triangle are 50 cm, 78 cm and 112 cm. The smallest altitude is

(a) 20 cm

(b) 30 cm

(c) 40 cm

(d) 50 cm

Answer 1

The area of a triangle having sides a, b, c and s as semi-perimeter is given by,

, where

Therefore the area of a triangle, say A having sides 50 cm, 78 cm and 112 cm is given by

The area of a triangle, having p as the altitude will be,

$\mathrm{Area}=\frac{1}{2}\times \mathrm{base}\times \mathrm{height}$

Where, A = 1680

We have to find the smallest altitude, so will substitute the value of the base AC with the length of each side one by one and find the smallest altitude distance i.e. p

Case 1

Case 2

Case 3

Therefore, the answer is (b).