Question

A triangle has a base of 15 inches and an area of 60 square inches. What is the height of the triangle? In your final answer, include all of your calculations.

Answer 1

To find the height of a triangle when given the base and area, we can use the formula for the area of a triangle:

\[
\text{Area} = \frac{1}{2} \times \text{base} \times \text{height}
\]

We are given that the area is 60 square inches and the base is 15 inches. We can set up the equation:

\[
60 = \frac{1}{2} \times 15 \times \text{height}
\]

Next, we simplify the right side of the equation:

\[
60 = \frac{15}{2} \times \text{height}
\]

To eliminate the fraction, we can multiply both sides of the equation by 2:

\[
120 = 15 \times \text{height}
\]

Now, we divide both sides by 15 to solve for height:

\[
\text{height} = \frac{120}{15}
\]

Calculating the division:

\[
\text{height} = 8
\]

Thus, the height of the triangle is

\[
\boxed{8} \text{ inches}
\]