Can someone show me how to do this step by step so i can better understand it in the future? it deals with area, and math isn't my strong subject.

The figure is separated into triangles.

The triangle has a base of 8 inches and a hypotenuse of 10 inches.

Using the Pythagorean theorem solve for the height of the triangle:

10^2 = 8^2 + x^2

100 = 64 + x^2

x^2 = 100-64

x^2 = 36

x = √36

x = 6

The height of the triangle is the width of the rectangle and the length of  the rectangle is 2 triangle bases ( 8 * 2 = 16)

Area of a rectangle is L x W = 6 x 16 = 96 square inches.

yes. we do proportions in probabilities.