There are 5 circles with a radius of 3.34 cm each as shown in the picture. What is the trapezium with smallest area that contains these 5 given circles?
The image is a trapezium with the two circles on the top with three on the bottom stacked adjacently I tried adding the diameters of 3 to get the bottom, 2 to get the top then 2 to get the height but then the angle would cut through the bottom circle. I'm unsure how to figure out what length it has to be
Just by observation, it's when the sloping sides are tangent to both circles. In the picture, a sloping line which is tangent to both circles will remove more orange area above the tangent point on the bottom circle than the added area below it.