To find the area of a triangle, we use the formula:
\[ \text{Area} = \frac{1}{2} \times \text{base} \times \text{height} \]
First, we calculate the area of the original triangle with height 5 inches and base 8 inches:
\[ \text{Area} = \frac{1}{2} \times 8 , \text{inches} \times 5 , \text{inches} = \frac{1}{2} \times 40 , \text{square inches} = 20 , \text{square inches} \]
Next, we find the scale factor used in the scale drawing. The original height is 5 inches, and the height of the scale drawing is 2 inches. The scale factor is:
\[ \text{Scale factor} = \frac{\text{height of scale drawing}}{\text{height of original triangle}} = \frac{2 , \text{inches}}{5 , \text{inches}} = \frac{2}{5} \]
The area of similar figures scales with the square of the scale factor. Therefore, the area of the scale drawing is calculated as follows:
\[ \text{Area of scale drawing} = \text{Area of original triangle} \times \left(\text{Scale factor}\right)^2 = 20 , \text{square inches} \times \left(\frac{2}{5}\right)^2 \]
Calculating this step-by-step:
\[ \left(\frac{2}{5}\right)^2 = \frac{4}{25} \]
Now compute the area:
\[ \text{Area of scale drawing} = 20 , \text{square inches} \times \frac{4}{25} = \frac{80}{25} , \text{square inches} = 3.2 , \text{square inches} \]
Thus, the area of Crystal's scale drawing is:
\[ \boxed{3.2 , \text{square inches}} \]