Altitude (triangle)

So imagine you're drawing a triangle on a piece of paper. One corner of the triangle is at the bottom of your paper, and the other two corners are up higher, closer to the top. The distance from one of those top corners straight down to the bottom of the paper is called the altitude of the triangle.

The altitude is important because it helps us figure out some things about the triangle. For example, if we know the length of one side of the triangle and the length of the altitude that goes with it, we can figure out how big the area of the triangle is (which means how much space it takes up on the paper).

Also, the altitude can help us figure out if a triangle is a right triangle (which means one of the angles is a perfect 90 degrees). If the altitude of a triangle goes straight down from one of the top corners and hits the bottom corner right in the middle, that means that corner is a right angle.

So basically, the altitude of a triangle is just the length of a line that goes straight down from one of the top corners to the bottom corner. And that length is useful for figuring out things like area and if the triangle is a right triangle.