How To Find The Height Of A Triangle: Formulas And Trigonometry Explained

Height of a triangle

a segment from a vertex that forms a right angle with a line containing the base

The height of a triangle is the length of a perpendicular line segment drawn from the base of the triangle to the vertex that is opposite to the base. This perpendicular line segment divides the base into two equal parts, and the length of this line segment is the height of the triangle.

There are different methods to calculate the height of a triangle, depending on the information available.

One common way to find the height of a triangle is by using the formula:

h = (2 × A) / b

where h is the height of the triangle, A is the area of the triangle, and b is the length of the base of the triangle.

To use this formula, you first need to calculate the area of the triangle using the formula:

A = (1/2) × b × h

where A is the area of the triangle, b is the length of the base of the triangle, and h is the height of the triangle.

Once you have calculated the area of the triangle, you can substitute it in the formula for the height of the triangle, and solve for h.

Another way to find the height of a triangle is by using trigonometry. If you know one angle and one side of a right triangle (where the side and the angle are adjacent), you can use the tangent function to find the height of the triangle.

For example, if you know the length of one leg of a right triangle and one of the angles adjacent to it, you can use the tangent function to find the height of the triangle:

tan(theta) = h / a

where theta is the angle adjacent to the known side a, h is the height of the triangle, and a is the length of the known side.

By rearranging the formula, you can solve for the height:

h = a × tan(theta)

These are just two methods of finding the height of a triangle, but there are other ways as well, depending on the given information.

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