Area of a triangle
The question
cm²
Area of a 17 by 16 triangle
How it works.
- 01
A triangle. You need its base and its height.
- 02
The base is the side it stands on: 17 cm.
- 03
The height is the DASHED line — straight up from the base, at a right angle to it: 16 cm. Not the sloping side.
- 04
Now why half: turn a second copy of the triangle upside down against this one and the two together make a parallelogram — 17 × 16 = 272. The triangle is exactly half of it.
- 05
So half of 272 is 136 square cm.