Calculating the Area of a Right Triangle Look at the area of the rectangle: Base x Height = 6 x 3 = 18 sq. units Think of a triangle as “half of a rectangle”… The area of a triangle = ½ x (Base x Height) = ½ x 6 x 3 = 9 sq. units Height = 3 Base = 6

Calculating the Area of Any Triangle 1) Make a parallelogram. 2) Change to a rectangle of equal area. 3) Take half of the rectangle to make right triangle. 4) Area is still ½ x Base x Height – ½ x 4 x 2 = 4 sq. units. <- Height = 2 -> ---------- Base = 4 --------