Question

Sarah has a triangular piece of paper. The base of the paper is 14 and 1/2 inches. The height of the paper is 12 inches. What is the area of the piece of paper?

Answer 1

`87` `"in"^2`

Explanation:

I went ahead and drew the triangle so that you could imagine it:

Now, the formula to find the area of a triangle is:
`1/2 hb`
`"h = height"`
`"b = base"`

They already gave us the measurements for the height and base, so we just have to put them into the equation:
`1/2 hb`

`1/2 (12)(14.5)`

`1/2(174)`

`uarr` This is the same as saying "divide 174 in half" or "divide 174 by two", so we will go ahead and do that:

`174/2 rarr 87`

So the area of the triangle is `87` `"in"^2`