There is a dunking booth at a school fair, where a ball must be thrown at a target in the shape of an isosceles triangle. The triangle has legs that measure 5 inches and the base measures 8 inches. In order to actually dunk the person in the booth, the thrown ball must hit the center of the triangular target, which is marked by a small square, with side lengths of 1 inch.

Question

anonymous · Answer

If it is equally likely to hit any point on the target, what is the probability that the person in the booth will be dunked?

anonymous · Answer

attachment

allank · Answer

I believe you can directly use the area:
P(dunk)=Dunking area/Total area=yellowSquareArea/TriangleArea

phi · Answer

you have to figure out the area of the triangle  and (not so hard) the square

anonymous · Answer

would the area of the square be 2?

phi · Answer

small square, with side lengths of 1 inch.

phi · Answer

area = base*height

for a square, that simplifies...

phi · Answer

this has the formula for various shapes http://www.mathsisfun.com/area.html

anonymous · Answer

so it is 2?

phi · Answer

how do you get 2?

anonymous · Answer

area of a square. each side is 1 inch. urghhh i dont know :/

phi · Answer

the formula is base times height.

the base is the "bottom side".  the height is also a side.
what is 1*1 ?

anonymous · Answer

1

phi · Answer

the area of the square is 1 square inch.

now for the triangle.

what is the formula for the area of a triangle ?

phi · Answer

That was rude