Question

A triangle has a base of 14 and height of 6. What is its area?

Answer 1

`area =42 color(white)(.)units^2`

Explanation:

Consider the diagram of the rectangle ABCD

If we draw only one line and that is from from A to C we have effectively 'cut' the rectangle's area in half. The same thing occurs if we draw only one line and that is from from B to D

Thus the area of a 'right triangle' is half that of the related rectangle.

The area of the whole rectangle is height x base.
So the area of a triangle is `1/2xx` height x base.

So we have:
`area = 1/2xx6xx14`

`area =3xx14`

`area = 42`

However, this is square area so we need to include the units of measurement. As we do not know what is being used as a measure we can get away with writing.

`area =42 color(white)(.)units^2`