The longest side of a right triangle is 5 meters and the shortest side is 3 meters. What is the area of the triangle in square meters?
I know that the longest side of a right triangle is called the hypotenuse, and it is always opposite the right angle. The shortest side is one of the legs, and it doesn't matter which one I call it. I can use the Pythagorean theorem to find the length of the other leg, which I will call x. The Pythagorean theorem says that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the legs, so I can write: 5^2 = 3^2 + x^2. Simplifying, I get 25 = 9 + x^2, so x^2 = 16. Taking the square root of both sides, I get x = 4. So the other leg of the triangle is 4 meters long. Now I can find the area of the triangle by using the formula: area = half the product of the base and the height. I can choose either leg as the base or the height, it doesn't matter. I will choose the base as 4 meters and the height as 3 meters. So the area is half of 4 times 3, which is 6. Therefore, the area of the triangle is 6 square meters. 