The two equal sid

Let ΔABC be isosceles where BC is the base of fixed length b.

Let the length of the two equal sides of ΔABC be a.

Now, draw a perpendicular AD to BC. Then, we have

In ΔADC, by using Pythagoras theorem,

AD =

Then, Area of triangle (A) =

The rate of change of the area with respect to time (t) is given by:

It is given that the two equal sides of the triangle are decreasing at the rate of 3cm per second.

Then

And when a = b we have,

Therefore, if the two sides are equal to the base, then the area of the triangle is decreasing at the rate of cm²/s.