An equilateral triangle and square have the same perimeter. Each side of the square measures 6 cm. what is the length of each side of the triangle.

Question

I'm confused on how to solve this type of problem. Can anyone help me? 

Answer 1

Solving these problems is generally just a matter of stepping through the facts and seeing what they lead to.

 

First of all, they say that each side of the square is 6 cm.  The perimeter of a square is 4 times the length of a side, because there are 4 sides and they are all the same length.  So that means that the perimeter is 4 x 6 = 24 cm.

 

Now what about the triangle.  They say that the square and the triangle have the same perimeter, so the triangle's perimeter is also 24 cm.  An equilateral triangle has 3 sides that are all the same, so the perimeter of an equilateral triangle is 3 times the length of a side.

 

So what length must the sides of the triangle be for 3 times the length to equal 24?  You can set this up as an equationL  3s = 24.  Or you can tell just by looking at the numbers that the sides must be 8 cm.

 

 

Answer 2

perimeter of the square is P=4s

P=4*6=24 cm

perimeter of the equilateral triangle is P=3s

24=3s

s=24/3

s=8 cm for each side of the triangle

Answer 3

An equilateral triangle means all 3 sides are the same length.

A square also have the same length for all 4 sides.

So each side of the square is 6cm, to find the perimeter you do 6*4=24.

then divide the square's perimeter by 3 since triangle have 3 sides. 24/3=8

so each side of the triangle will be 8cm