Education Technology

Triangle in the Matrix

Published on 10/17/2012

Activity Overview

In this activity, students will represent a triangle with a matrix and use the determinant to find the area of three given triangles.

Key Steps

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    In this activity, students will find the area of a right triangle using a matrix and verify the formula using A = 0.5bh.

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    Then students will practice using the matrix formula and confirm their answer by finding the area of the triangle on the Graphs application.

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    In the extension, students are asked to find the vertex of a triangle given the other two vertices and the area. They can solve this problem algebraically or use a Graphs page.