Right Triangle Area

Part of the Triangles section of Coddy's Geometry journey. Lesson 24 of 71.

A right triangle comes with its own height. The two legs meet at a right angle, so if one leg is the base, the other leg is the height. You do not need to draw an extra line. For legs 6 and 8:

$A right triangle with legs 8 along the bottom and 6 up the left$

The legs are the base and the height

A = 1/2 × b × h

A = 1/2 × 8 × 6 = 24

Substituting into the formula is a step of its own. Replace the letters b and h with the numbers from the figure, then multiply. The problem can be written as a system: A = 1/2 × b × h with b = 8 and h = 6. Each substitution is one step, and the last step is the product. The hypotenuse is not used, because it is neither the base nor the height here.