A triangle has base 6 and height 4. What is its area?

A triangle has base 6 and height 4. What is its area?

• A. 12 square units
• B. 24 square units
• C. 18 square units
• D. 6 square units

Answer: (A)

The key idea is that the area of a triangle is base times height divided by 2. This comes from comparing a triangle to a rectangle with the same base and height — the triangle occupies exactly half of that rectangle. With base 6 and height 4, the rectangle’s area would be 6 × 4 = 24 square units. Since the triangle is half of that, its area is 24 ÷ 2 = 12 square units. So the area is 12 square units.

The key idea is that the area of a triangle is base times height divided by 2. This comes from comparing a triangle to a rectangle with the same base and height — the triangle occupies exactly half of that rectangle.

With base 6 and height 4, the rectangle’s area would be 6 × 4 = 24 square units. Since the triangle is half of that, its area is 24 ÷ 2 = 12 square units. So the area is 12 square units.