Question 168206
First, to draw an isosceles right triangle, draw a square, then draw one of its diagonals. You now have two congruent isosceles right triangles.
Now draw the other diagonal and you will see that the diagonals of a square bisect each other.
Next, erase one of the triangles (that's half the square) and you are left with one isosceles right triangle whose height (h) is exactly half the length of its base (b). But the base is really the hypotenuse of this right triangle. So, for the area of this triangle, you can write:
{{{A = (1/2)bh}}} But {{{h = (1/2)b}}}, so substitute this to get:
{{{A = (1/2)b*(1/2)b}}} Simplify.
{{{A = (1/4)b^2}}} where b is the length of the hypotenuse.