Calculate the DE:EC Ratio in a Trapezoid with 1:3 Area Division

To calculate the ratio between the sides we will use the existing figure:

$\frac{A_{AED}}{A_{ABCE}}=\frac{1}{3}$

We calculate the ratio between the sides according to the formula to find the area and then replace the data.

We know that the area of triangle ADE is equal to:

$A_{ADE}=\frac{h\times DE}{2}$

We know that the area of the parallelogram is equal to:

$A_{ABCD}=h\times EC$

We replace the data in the formula given by the ratio between the areas:

$\frac{\frac{1}{2}h\times DE}{h\times EC}=\frac{1}{3}$

We solve by cross multiplying and obtain the formula:

$h\times EC=3(\frac{1}{2}h\times DE)$

We open the parentheses accordingly:

$h\times EC=1.5h\times DE$

We divide both sides by h:

$EC=\frac{1.5h\times DE}{h}$

We simplify to h:

$EC=1.5DE$

Therefore, the ratio between is: $\frac{EC}{DE}=\frac{1}{1.5}$