# Manipulating formulas: area

CCSS Math: HSA.CED.A.4

## Video transcript

The formula for the area of a triangle is A is equal to 1/2 b times h, where A is equal to area, b is equal to length of the base, and h is equal to the length of the height. So area is equal to 1/2 times the length of the base times the length of the height. Solve this formula for the height. So just to visualize this a little bit, let me draw a triangle here. Let me draw a triangle just so we know what b and h are. b would be the length of the base. So this distance right over here is b. And then this distance right here is our height. That is the height of the triangle-- let me do that at a lower case h because that's how we wrote it in the formula. Now, they want us to solve this formula for the height. So the formula is area is equal to 1/2 base times height. And we want to solve for h. We essentially want to isolate the h on one side of the equation. It's already on the right-hand side. So let's get rid of everything else on the right-hand side. So we can do it-- well, I'll do it one step at a time. We could kind of skip steps if we wanted to. But let's see if we can get rid of this 1/2. So the best way to get rid of a 1/2 that's being multiplied by h is if we multiply both sides of the equation by its reciprocal. If we multiply both sides of the equation by 2/1 or by 2. So let's do that. So let's multiply-- remember anything you do to one side of the equation, you also have to do to the other side of the equation. Now, what did this do? Well, the whole point behind multiplying by 2 is 2 times 1/2 is 1. So on the right-hand side of the equation, we're just going to have a bh. And on the left-hand side of the equation, we have a 2A. And we're almost there, we have a b multiplying by an h. If we want to just isolate the h, we could divide both sides of this equation by b. We're just dividing both sides. You can almost view b as the coefficient on the h. We're just dividing both sides by b. And then what do we get? Well, the right-hand side, the b's cancel out. On the left-hand side, we're just left with 2A over b. So we get h-- and I'm just swapping the sides here. h is equal to 2A over b. And we're done. We have solved this formula for the height. And I guess this could be useful. If someone just gave you a bunch of areas and a bunch of base lengths, and they said keep giving me the height for those values, or for those triangles.