What is the area formula for a triangle with base b and height h?

What is the area formula for a triangle with base b and height h?

• A. A = 1/2 bh
• B. A = bh
• C. A = pi r^2
• D. A = (1/2)(b + h)

Answer: (A)

The area of a triangle is half of the product of its base and height. The base is any side you choose to use as a reference, and the height is the perpendicular distance from that base to the opposite vertex. If you imagine a rectangle with the same base and height, its area is bh. A triangle with that same base and height fits inside that rectangle and, when you cut the rectangle along a diagonal, you get two equal-area triangles. That shows the triangle’s area is exactly half of bh, so A = 1/2 bh. The other formulas don’t fit: bh describes a rectangle’s area, pi r^2 is for circles, and 1/2(b + h) doesn’t correspond to how area scales with base and height.

The area of a triangle is half of the product of its base and height. The base is any side you choose to use as a reference, and the height is the perpendicular distance from that base to the opposite vertex. If you imagine a rectangle with the same base and height, its area is bh. A triangle with that same base and height fits inside that rectangle and, when you cut the rectangle along a diagonal, you get two equal-area triangles. That shows the triangle’s area is exactly half of bh, so A = 1/2 bh. The other formulas don’t fit: bh describes a rectangle’s area, pi r^2 is for circles, and 1/2(b + h) doesn’t correspond to how area scales with base and height.