You are making a banner for your cousin's birthday party. You start by cutting out triangle pieces of cardstock paper; to not waste paper, you choose to cut the paper diagonally. Each piece of cardstock paper measures five inches in height with a base of three and a half inches. After cutting, what is the approximate angle formed at the base of the triangle?

1 answer

To find the angle at the base of the triangle, we can use the tangent of the angle.

tan(theta) = opposite/adjacent

In this case, the opposite side is 5 inches (height of the triangle) and the adjacent side is 3.5 inches (half the base of the triangle).

tan(theta) = 5/3.5
tan(theta) = 1.4286

Now, we can take the arctan to find the angle:

theta = arctan(1.4286)
theta ≈ 55.3 degrees

Therefore, the approximate angle formed at the base of the triangle is approximately 55.3 degrees.