To find this altitude (shortest rectangular side), we divid…

To find this altitude (shortest rectangular side), we divide the area of the triangle into smaller sections. However, for simplicity let's use the previous derived height, \(h = 3\sqrt{3}\), that splits the equilateral triangle. The smallest rectangular side (altitude you just added on the right triangle) is simply going to be the height of each of the right triangles, divided in half. Each of these heights is just 3 cm, exactly half of 6 cm, which acts as the parallel height to the base division.