To find the area of the dilated rectangle, first, we need to determine the dimensions of the rectangle after applying the dilation.
The original rectangle has:
- Height = 6 inches
- Base (width) = 8 inches
The scale factor for the dilation is 0.5. To find the dimensions of the dilated rectangle, we multiply each dimension by the scale factor:
- Dilated height = \( 6 , \text{inches} \times 0.5 = 3 , \text{inches} \)
- Dilated base = \( 8 , \text{inches} \times 0.5 = 4 , \text{inches} \)
Now, we can calculate the area of the dilated rectangle using the formula for the area of a rectangle:
\[ \text{Area} = \text{height} \times \text{base} \]
Substituting the dilated dimensions:
\[ \text{Area} = 3 , \text{inches} \times 4 , \text{inches} = 12 , \text{square inches} \]
Therefore, the area of the dilated rectangle is \( \boxed{12} \) square inches.