A configuration of firewood is arranged in the shape of a triangle. If each piece of wood is 1 foot in length, what is the volume of the pile of wood?

Question

I am having trouble setting this up. The problem includes a diagram of the wood set up one side measures 20ft another side measures 14ft. The angle is 50 degrees and the wood meaesures 1 foot in length. Please help..

Answer 1

Area = .5xySinC =.5(14)(20)Sin50 = 140(.77) = about 107.25 ft^2

Answer 2

This is difficult to visualize without a diagram. I'm guessing the base of the triangle has two sides of length 20ft and 14ft with an angle between them of 50 degrees. If so, the area of the triangular base can be found by:

Area = 1/2 x ab x sinC

where a and b are the sides, and C is the angle between them, so the area = 1/2 x 20 x 14 x sin55

Now that we have the area of the base, we can multiply it by the height to find the volume. I'm assuming the height is 1ft, as if the wood is arranged in a 1ft high triangular prism. So the volume = area x height.

If this doesn't seem right based on the diagram, you'll have to either describe the diagram, or try to get a picture.