9. The images below show the first 6 stages of the Sierpinski Triangle Fractal. On the first stage, of the triangle's area is removed (shown in white). On the second stage, an additional of the area is removed, and so on as shown. 16 A A A A A a) Find the total area removed from the triangle after the 15th step. [3 marks] b) Determine the number of shaded triangles required to create the 30th stage of this fractal. [2 marks]