Students will discover what the area of a triangle is by recording the area of rectangles and triangles and noticing what the relationship between the two is.
Steps to make the applet:
1. With the polygon tool (5th from the left) construct a rectangle.
2. With the area tool (5th from the right, select area from drop down menu) click on the rectangle and this will give you the area of the rectangle.
3. With the 3rd tool over from the left select segment between two points (from drop down menu) and connect points A and C.
4. Now click the polygon tool again and connect points ABC to form a triangle.
5. Use the area tool to click on the triangle and it will give you the area of the triangle.
