Posts Tagged ‘area of a trapezoid’

Area of a Trapezoid

In this section we are going to find the area of a trapezoid. First of all, let us define what a trapezoid is.

What is a trapezoid?

A trapezoid (or a trapezium as they are known in Britain), by definition, has four sides with two of its sides parallel to each other. As seen in this yellow trapezoid, the two sides, a and b are parrallel to each other.

Trapezium or Trapezoid

So, any geometrical object with four sides are trapezoids if two sides are parallel to each other. Now, let’s calculate the area of a trapezoid.

How to calculate the area of a trapezoid?

For any trapezoid, there is a height which is the distance between the two parallel sides, in this case a and b. The height is marked ‘h’ in the yellow trapezoid.

Area of a trapezoid

To calculate the area of any trapezoid, all you need to know is the length of the two parallel sides and the distance between them. In another word, you need to know a, b, and h.

Once you have those three, the formula for calculating the area of a trapezoid is: ½ x h x (a +b)

Area of trapezoid

So, now you can calculate the area of any trapezoid. Just measure the length of the two parallel sides and the distance between them, put the three numbers in the equation and you have the area of the trapezoid!

Math Formulas

Math formulas are important when solving Math Homework Problems. Knowing math formulas allows you to solve math problems quickly. When you learn more advanced math, math formulas become less and less useful. This is because beyond college level mathematics, you need to do all your math proofs from scratch from the basics. The need to prove from first principals becomes more and more important.

Math formulas have many practical uses in everyday life. Math formulas are not only useful in math but in physics, business, finance, and economics for examples. We will review some math formulae here on this Math Help website to help you with math homework.

Math Formulas