A triangle is one of three basic geometrical shapes whose properties are tested in the GMAT quantitative section. Students taking the GMAT exam should be well versed with the properties of triangle and other important formulae related to it. In this article, we will look at area and height of triangles.
You all know that a triangle has three sides. The area is nothing but ½ x (base) x (height). Any side can be chosen as the base but the height should be perpendicular to the base and go through the opposing vertex. The perimeter of a triangle is nothing but the sum of three sides.
So, for a triangle which has base as 6 cm and height as 4 cm, the area would be 12 cm2.
What else you can do inside qs leap ?
If you want to find the height of the triangle, you need to understand that a triangle has three altitudes or heights. Any side can be a base and the line perpendicular to it would form the height of the triangle. In typical GMAT problems, the height of the triangle is usually given. The only exception is the right angled triangle where one leg is the base and the other one is the height.
In questions where application of these concepts is involved, the GMAT will not give you straightforward questions. To tackle triangle questions well, you need to be well versed with properties, angles, types of triangles and basic theorems such as Pythagoras among others.
