A piece of paper is in the

shape of a right triangle. The
base is 4.25 inches and the
height is 11 inches. What is
the area of the right triangle in
square inches? Express your
answer as a decimal. Do not
round your answer.

1 answer

To find the area of a right triangle, you can use the formula:

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

In this case, the base is 4.25 inches and the height is 11 inches. Plugging in these values into the formula gives:

\[ \text{Area} = \frac{1}{2} \times 4.25 \times 11 \]

Calculating it step-by-step:

  1. Calculate \(4.25 \times 11\): \[ 4.25 \times 11 = 46.75 \]

  2. Now multiply by \(\frac{1}{2}\): \[ \text{Area} = \frac{1}{2} \times 46.75 = 23.375 \]

So, the area of the right triangle is

\[ \boxed{23.375} \text{ square inches.} \]