The estimated area of the parallelogram is C) 72 sq. units.
The easiest way to estimate the area of the parallelogram is to count. Since the area is the space within a shape, totaling the amount of units present should give us the area. In this case, every square on the graph is worth 1 sq. unit.
- We should begin by tallying the number of full squares shown. (Ignore the halves for now.) After counting, we find that there are 60 full squares in the parallelogram, which amounts to 60 sq. units.
- However, since the area is comprised of everything within a shape, we must also take count of all the incomplete (not full) squares as well. These half-squares are present only at the borders of the shape. Each side has 6 of them; there are 24 halves in total.
- Since there are 24 halves (not 24 squares), there are not 24 sq. units garnered from the halves. Instead, we can divide 24 by 2, which is equivalent to pairing the 24 halves to get whole squares. After doing so, we find that there are 12 (full) squares along the borders of the shape. Therefore, the 24 halves give us a total of 12 sq. units.
- Now that we have found all of the square units within the parallelogram, the last step is to add the two sums (60 and 12) to discover our final answer. 60 + 12 = 72. This means that there is an overall area of 72 sq. units for this parallelogram.
- Our answer is C) 72 sq. units.