<p>Picture a pyramid. Now picture a line from the peak of the pyramid to the middle of the base. The base is a square; however each of the triangles' attributes aren't given / not really needed. The length of the square is M. The side length of the triangle is E. E = M. Now, that line going through the middle of the pyramid is H ( the altitude ). What is H in terms of M?</p>
<p>This question is #19 on prac. test one, in the blue book, section 3. The explanation sucks. Could you brilliant people on CC please elaborate? (:</p>
<p>btw, the answer is H = M / Square root of 2. i got M square root of 3 / 2. I'd appreciate some light on this situation.</p>
<p>Because, e=m, we can find h using the Pythagorean Theorem. Drawing a diagonal in the square, the diagonal is of length (m(sqrroot(2)) by the Pythagorean theorem. Call one of the vertices of the square “a.” Thus, we have trangle Vha. The legs of this right triangle are m and (m(sqrroot(2)))/2. The latter was found by dividing the diagonal of the square by 2. Because e=m, the Pythagorean theorem for this triangle is m^2= h^2 + ((m(sqrroot(2)))/2)^2. Solving for h, we have m/sqrroot(2)</p>
<p>Thanks !! I finally got it. The explanation was using numbers that didn’t look right to me, seeming that their answers had no origin of some sort. Thanks very much though!</p>