Area of Triangle Formula
The area of a triangle is given by one-half multiplied by the base and height.
Formula Terms
| Expression | Description |
|---|---|
| The area of the triangle. | |
| The base length of the triangle. | |
| The height length of the triangle. |
To calculate the area of a triangle, multiply the length of its base by the length of its height, then divide by two.
For example, to calculate the area of a triangle with a base of and a height of use the following formula.
The area of the triangle is equal to units squared.
The area of a triangle formula can be derived using a combination of geometry and the area of a rectangle formula[1]. The three cases of the derivation correspond to three triangle types: right triangle, acute triangle and obtuse triangle.
The area of a rectangle is given by its width multiplied by its height.
The area of any parallelogram is equal to the base multiplied by the height.
The area of a trapezoid is given by its height multiplied by the sum of its top length and bottom length divided by two.
The area of the parallelogram formed between two vectors in 2D is given by their cross product.
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Derive Area of Triangle Formula