Calculate Trapezoid Area: Using Bases 4cm, 8cm and Height 6cm

Question

The trapezoid ABCD is shown below.

The height of ABCD is 6 cm.

The base BC is equal to 4 cm.

The base AD is equal to 8 cm.

Calculate the area of trapezoid ABCD.

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Video Solution

Solution Steps

00:00 Calculate the area of the trapezoid
00:03 Let's use the formula for calculating the area of a trapezoid
00:07 ((sum of bases) times height) divided by 2
00:13 Let's substitute appropriate values according to the given data and solve for the area
00:39 Divide 12 by 2
00:47 And this is the solution to the problem

Step-by-Step Solution

To solve this problem, we'll follow these steps:

  • Step 1: Identify the given information
  • Step 2: Apply the appropriate formula
  • Step 3: Perform the necessary calculations

Now, let's work through each step:

Step 1: The problem gives us the height of the trapezoid as 6cm6 \, \text{cm}, base BC as 4cm4 \, \text{cm} and base AD as 8cm8 \, \text{cm}.

Step 2: We'll use the formula for the area of a trapezoid:

A=12×(base1+base2)×height A = \frac{1}{2} \times (\text{base}_1 + \text{base}_2) \times \text{height}

Step 3: Substituting the given values into the formula:

A=12×(4+8)×6 A = \frac{1}{2} \times (4 + 8) \times 6

Calculating further,

A=12×12×6 A = \frac{1}{2} \times 12 \times 6

A=12×72 A = \frac{1}{2} \times 72

A=36cm2 A = 36 \, \text{cm}^2

Therefore, the area of the trapezoid ABCD is 36cm236 \, \text{cm}^2.

Answer

36