Crossword Help Forum
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1. What is the smallest area possible for a triangle whose three sides and its height are consecutive whole numbers of inches?

2. A bag contains a ball known to be either black or white. A white ball is now put into the bag, the bag shaken, and a ball removed. It is white. You now remove a second ball. What is the chance of it also being white?

EVENS?

@ The Joker

Answering a question like this and following your answer with a question mark is no help at all! Go and stand in the naughty corner.

@ Madge

I think the answer is 2-1 on

If you label the first ball as either B1 or W1 and the second one as W2, these are the four combinations after shaking:

B1 W2
W1 W2
W2 W1
W2 B1


Having eliminated the first option we are left with two options containing white and one containing black as the second ball.

Madge - you can put both clues into googleg and get answers

http://able2know.org/topic/145348-1

ps. My favored answer for tho other is

With one white ball in your hand it is still possible to pull out.
1) The original white ball, you have the second
2) The second white ball, you have the first
3) The original black ball, you have the second white ball

2 possibilites to grab a white ball, 1 possibility to grab a black ball.

The probablility that the bag contains a white ball is 2:3

(not my work)

Mine entry was all my own work, and I can't see what you have added to it.

Big Dave
I added nothing and I should have pointed out that it was saying the same as you.
I just found it easier to understand.Sorry.

What a load of b***s

I think the answer to the first one is easier than you think in that one of the sides is also the height. I remember being taught by a guy called Pythagoras many years ago and you end up with a 3x4x5 triangle. So the answer is 6 sq inches.

PHILIP

That is for a triangle containing a right angle but,still,if you choose to ignore the fact that 3,4,5,5, aren't really consectutive numbers then you may be right.

Question one is incomplete. The smallest right-angled triangle which can be drawn with sides of three consecutive integers is 3, 4 & 5 which, as Philip wrote, has an area of 6 sq inches. However sides of 2, 3 & 4 will form the smallest triangle with sides of consecutive integer values.

The area of any triangle of sides a, b & c can quickly be calculated using Heron's formula:

A = SQRT(s * (s-a) * (s-b) * (s-c))

where s = (a + b + c)/2

So for the smallest possible triangle with sides of 2, 3 & 4 the area will be very slightly more than 2.9 sq inches.

Hope that keeps everyone happy!