Fiona must find the length indicated by the dotted line for the tiles she is installing. She knows that each polygon is a regular hexagon with a perimeter of 7.5 in.



The length of the dotted line is
in. Express the answer to the nearest hundredth.

Fiona must find the length indicated by the dotted line for the tiles she is installing She knows that each polygon is a regular hexagon with a perimeter of 75 class=

Respuesta :

Answer:

3.75 in

Step-by-step explanation:

Since this figure is regular (all of the sides are congruent), the length of each side would be the perimeter, 7.5, divided by the number of sides, 6:

7.5/6 = 1.25 in.

To find the length across one entire hexagon:

We can draw 6 small triangles from the center of the hexagon.  We will work with the triangle at the bottom.

The top vertex of this triangle will be 60°; this is because there are 6 angles, and 360 (the amount of a complete rotation around the center point) divided by 6 is 60°.

This will be an isosceles triangle.  The top vertex of this triangle is in the center of the hexagon; this means the length of the segment connecting this vertex to the bottom two vertices of the triangle will be the same.  (Think of it as the radius of a circle, the same from the center to every outside point.)

The sum of the measures of the angles in a triangle is 180°; taking out the top angle, we have 180-60 = 120°.  Since the triangle is isosceles, the base angles will be equal:

120/2 = 60

The bottom two angles will also be 60°.  This makes the triangle equiangular, which also makes it equilateral; all 3 sides will be 1.25.

This means across the dotted line we have 1.25+1.25+1.25 = 3.75.