Confusion on Isosceles Triangle Function

[frail ember]

I have a code to calculate the isosceles triangle area. The leg length is 5 and the height is 4 to test my code. However, in the example that also uses the same value the answer is 12 but I keep getting 10. I'm unsure of what's wrong with the calculation. I'm guessing the leg length and height are different from the side length not sure how to word it. Help would be appreciated thank you for your time!

Here is my code for the calculation:

[naive falcon]

The correct answer is 10 tho, right? You can verify on Google too

[frail ember]

I did verify it on google as well but the example states its 12 and other people have been getting that answer.

I'm not sure what they did differently

[mild sky]

Maybe the leg length is not the length of the base of the triangle? Because your calc is correct area of triangle is half * base * height

[frail ember]

Wait the leg length is not the base of the triangle?

[mild sky]

I'm not sure, it should be the base of the triangle yeah but if it is then the answer should be 10 not 12 haha

What does the code output

[frail ember]

My code

Vs this example

[mild sky]

Hm

Whats the code used for thr example

[frail ember]

There is no code in the example 😭

It just shows what the output should be

[mild sky]

Unless I'm forgetting what the area of a triangle is haha the example seems wrong

Hol up

Yeah 1/2L.H

Is there more context provided to the example?

[frail ember]

Here is this context I got not sure what they mean though

[mild sky]

Hm I'm also not sure how they differentiate between a leg and base hold on

one can calculate the length of the legs of an isoceles triangle by dividing the length of the hypotenuse by the square root of 2.

So leg length is not the base of the triangle

Legs: The two equal sides of an isosceles triangle are known as 'legs'.

[frail ember]

So then legs are not the base

The two sides equal to the hypotenuse are the legs?

[mild sky]

Yeah makes mlre sense now you can just use Pythagoras to find base

[mild sky]

Well the triangle may not necessarily be right angled for there to be a hypothenuse, but the hight always makes 90°

So base length would be √5^2 - 4^2

= 3 which is half the base length

So area is 1/2 * 6 * 4 = 12

So in this problem you need to convert leg length to base length

[frail ember]

So 1/2 * b x h for conversion to the base length? (Area formula note for myself)

[mild sky]

That's the formula for area yeah

But to convert leg length to base length you would use Pythagoras

[frail ember]

Oh the Pythagorean theorem

Right?

[mild sky]

Yeah

Just solve for x here and you sould get base length

[frail ember]

Hmm but it has to be user input

Brainstorming ways to transfer this to code

[mild sky]

You can user input any value and compute that value later on as you like

It's late for me but if you are still stuck in maybe 6-7 hours i could help you then

Or someone else

[frail ember]

Alrighty I'm gonna test this out for a bit then

[frail ember]

Welp I still get 10

[naive falcon]

do you understand how toady got the answer?

[frail ember]

Yes by using the Pythagorean theorem and then using it to find the area

[naive falcon]

how are you still getting 10?

[frail ember]

I have no clue I'm gonna have to adjust the code more

Its not working at the moment

[naive falcon]

what's your code?

[frail ember]

Something like this and then I tried other things too

All of this

[naive falcon]

toady subtracted it and took its square root

[frail ember]

Okay so instead of + its -

[naive falcon]

yes

[frail ember]

So then need to take square root of the variables?

Leg length and height

[naive falcon]

of the whole thing

[frail ember]

(leg_length - height_2) * 0.5

[naive falcon]

no

square the variables, subtract them and then square root it

[frail ember]

I'm so sorry 😦

[naive falcon]

it's alright. don't worry

[frail ember]

Wait I typed it wrong

I'm like multitasking sorry

(leg_length2 - height_22)*0.5

discord bolded it but like in code its **2

[naive falcon]

to square root it, you would use ** 0.5

[frail ember]

Oh so for exponents and square root its **

Okayy

So then (leg_length ** 2 - height ** 2) ** 0.5

[naive falcon]

yeah

[frail ember]

Okay so got the theorem

[naive falcon]

you get 3 when you print theorem?

[frail ember]

Yes

[naive falcon]

good

now you just need to plug it in the area formula

[frail ember]

Which is 1/2 * leg length * height_2

But like thinking of where to plug in theorem

[naive falcon]

the formula uses base, not the length

what you got from the theorem is half of the base

[frail ember]

Leg length is prompting the user so that's why I said leg length

[naive falcon]

The purpose of leg length is to calculate the base

[frail ember]

Ahh okay

Ohh wait so its 1/2 * theorem * height_2

[naive falcon]

^^

[frail ember]

Ah so now need the other half?

[naive falcon]

that will be the same as what you have right now

[frail ember]

Same as what I have?

[naive falcon]

It is also 3

[frail ember]

Oh wait yeah

area = theorem * height_2

[naive falcon]

yeah, that works

[frail ember]

Oh damn

I just understood it

Let me try other values just in case

Okayy I think it works good enough

[naive falcon]

You shouldn't try to solve a problem without understanding it first 😅

[frail ember]

But how else would you have done it?

[naive falcon]

I would have done it like that

[frail ember]

Ah got it

Thank you so much 😄

[frail ember]

It just took some time I haven't done geometry in a while