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The following shape has two pairs of parallel sides. What is the area of the shape?

The following shape has two pairs of parallel sides. What is the area of the shape-example-1

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First, look at the whole square including the dotted lines. We can add up the lines on the right to now vertically the length is 9 and we already see horizontally it’s also 9. So the whole square is 81units^2. Now, we need to subtract the two triangles from this.

All we need to use is the simple triangle area formula. This is A=.5bh. A is area, b is base, h is height. On the left triangle, 4 units is h and 3 units is b. Plug in for A=.5(4)(3). This comes out to 6units^2.

For the second triangle, do the same thing. Here is the height is 5 units and the base is 4 units. This means A=.5(5)(4), giving us an area of 10units^2.

You can add up the two triangles and know that out of the rectangle the triangles take up 16units^2.

All you need to do now is so 81-16, and your answer is 65units^2. Hope this helped!
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