Area of a Trapezoid
Move the points around however you like, but keep the shape as a rectangle.
Calculate the area of the rectangle you have created above.
What method did you use to calculate for the area of a rectangle?
ABC is a right triangle.
Calculate the area of the right triangle above.
What do you notice about the area of a rectangle and the area of a triangle?
Based on your observations, what are two ways to write the relationship between the area of a rectangle and the area of a right triangle?
Use segments to decompose the figures into rectangles and right triangles to determine their area.
What is the area of Figure A?
What is the area of Figure B?
Note: The area for any parallelogram is and the area for all triangles is .
A trapezoid has bases of lengths a and b, with a distance, h, between them.
Use segments to break up the figure above to calculate the area of the trapezoid. What is the formula for area of a trapezoid? Explain your approach.
Challenge: Use the space below to show another approach to finding the area of the trapezoid.
Explain your approach.