Площа трапеції

Before this, knowTriangle Area in Terms of Base and HeightParallelogram Area

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In this trapezoid, sides CBCB and ADAD are parallel, and all the angles depicted by box angles are right. Segments XCXC and YBYB are not necessarily equal in length. Let's call the height(length of AXAX or YDYD) hh.

To find the area of this trapezoid, we first find the area of the right - triangles: △XCA\bigtriangleup XCA and △YBD\bigtriangleup YBD.

Those areas are h∗XC/2h * XC/2 and h∗YB/2h * YB/2.

Adding these areas, we get: h(XC+YB)/2h(XC + YB)/2.

Then, find the area of rectangle XADYXADY, which is ADAD * h.

h(XC+YB)/2+h(AD)h(XC + YB)/2 + h(AD) is the area of our trapezoid.

Simplifying that, we have:

h(XC+YB)/2+h(2AD)/2h(XC + YB)/2 + h(2AD)/2,

and h(XC+YB+2AD)/2h(XC + YB + 2AD)/2

Since ADAD is equal to XYXY, we can substitute the second ADAD for it, obtaining:

h(XC+XY+YB+AD)/2h(XC + XY + YB + AD)/2, which can simplify to h(CB+AD)/2h(CB + AD)/2.

This final area formula is often said as the height of the trapezoid multiplied by the average of the two bases.

Does this formula work for every trapezoid, or only a certain kind of trapezoids?

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If you can solve a contest problem with this idea, you know it well. If not, you know exactly what to review. These are real problems from the AMC 8, AMC 10, AMC 12 and AIME, the national math competitions for middle and high school students, each with a worked solution on LIVE by Po-Shen Loh.

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The area of a trapezoid is the average of the bases times the height. In mathematical terms, it is b1+b22h\frac{b_1+b_2}{2}h, where b1b_1 and b2b_2 are the bases and hh is the height. Here is a worksheet to practice your skills. You can think of the area of a rectangle as a specific case of the trapezoid where b1b_1 and b2b_2 are equal. Best of luck!

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