Question

Simon says that to find the area of a trapezoid, you can multiply the height by the top base and the height by the bottom base. Then add the two products together and divide the sum by 2. Is simon correct?

Answer 1

Answer:

Simon is correct in calculating Area of trapezoid.

Step-by-step explanation:

Given:

Simon says;

you can multiply the height by the top base and the height by the bottom base.

Then add the two products together and divide the sum by 2.

We need to find whether Simon is correct or not.

Solution:

Let the top base be $'a'$.

Let the bottom base be $'b'$

Let the height be $'h'$

Now we know that;

Area of trapezoid is equal to sum of Top base and bottom base divided by 2 and then multiplied by height.

framing in equation form we get;

Area of Trapezoid = $\frac{a+b}{2}h$

Applying distributive property we get;

Area of Trapezoid =$\frac{ah+bh}{2}$

Now according simon Area of trapezoid can be calculated by multiply the height by the top base and the height by the bottom base. Then add the two products together and divide the sum by 2.

Comparing the simon statement as well as Actual area of trapezoid we can see both are similar.

Hence We can say that Simon is correct in calculating Area of trapezoid.