Question

This is a trapezoid. Write an expression that represents the area of the trapezoid by breaking the trapezoid into two shapes. You can use each option more than once.

Answer 1

Hi there!

A trapezoid can be broken into a rectangle and two triangles. (A right trapezoid can be broken into a rectangle and one triangle.) The formula for the area of a rectangle is base x height or length x width. The formula for a triangle is 1/2(base x height). For this expression, we'll use length and width for the rectangle just to keep things separate. We'll need to add together the area of the triangles and the area of the rectangle. Here's how we'll do it: (length x width) + 1/2(base x height) + 1/2(base x height).

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