The area of a triangle with base b and height h is what?

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Multiple Choice

The area of a triangle with base b and height h is what?

The area of a triangle depends on both its base and its perpendicular height, and for any triangle the area is one-half the product of those two measurements. If you take a base length b and a height h, imagine the rectangle with the same base and height; its area is b times h. The triangle sits inside that rectangle and, when you cut the rectangle along the height, you get two congruent triangles. So each triangle covers exactly half of the rectangle, giving area = (1/2) × b × h. Half of h or half of b alone doesn’t account for the full base or height, and b h would be the area of the full rectangle, not the triangle.

The area of a triangle depends on both its base and its perpendicular height, and for any triangle the area is one-half the product of those two measurements. If you take a base length b and a height h, imagine the rectangle with the same base and height; its area is b times h. The triangle sits inside that rectangle and, when you cut the rectangle along the height, you get two congruent triangles. So each triangle covers exactly half of the rectangle, giving area = (1/2) × b × h. Half of h or half of b alone doesn’t account for the full base or height, and b h would be the area of the full rectangle, not the triangle.

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