Question

what is the area, in square inches, of the largest triangle that can fit into a 3-inch by 4-inch rectangle. please show how you got your answer:)

Answer 1

The area of the largest triangle would be 6 inches².

How did I get this? I'll explain first:

We would want our triangle to have the longest sides, so it can be big. If you think of a rectangle, a triangle can fit into it if:

The base (bottom) of the triangle is the same length as one side of the rectangle, and the other side of the triangle is perpendicular (90°) to the bottom and is the same length of the other side of the rectangle.

Okay, just picture it: two sides of the triangle are resting in the two sides of the rectangle, and the third side of the triangle is a line that splits the rectangle in half from one corner to the other.

I've added an image to explain.

The formula to find the area of a triangle is half of the base × height.

A of Δ = half of 3 × 4
A = 1.5 × 4 = 6 inches²!