by tommywallach Fri Sep 26, 2014 10:21 pm
Hey Jessica,
Imagine a triangle. You can see the base at the bottom. The height is defined as a line drawn from the highest point to the base that meets the base (or a horizontal extension of the base, if the peak of the triangle isn't over the base) at a ninety-degree angle.
Now imagine that you turned that triangle so that one of the OTHER sides was the base. There is now a new height. However, base*height will always be the same (because the area of a triangle is 1/2 * b * h, and the area of the triangle wouldn't change just because you turned it around).
See what I mean? Every triangle has three possible bases, and each of those bases comes with its own height.
-t