Hi!
There are three ways that are the simplest methods to doing this. The first is to just find the area of the trapezoid with an area formula. The second is find the area of the three triangles in the trapezoid. The last is to find the area of the rectangle which can be drawn around the trapezoid, and then subtract the area of the triangles that are subtracted from the rectangle to make the trapezoid.
I'm going to use the trapezoid area formula: it's the longer base + the shorter base, all divided by 2, and then multiplied by the height. The formula should be written like:
[tex] \frac{b1 + b2}{2} [/tex]h
In this case, the first base is 6 inches, and the second is 12. The height is 4.
So:
((6 + 12) / 2) * 4
(18 / 2) * 4
9 * 4
36
The area is 36 square inches (A).
