How to Find Area of a Trapezoid?

Trapezoid is a type of quadrilateral which has at least one pair of parallel sides. In other words a Trapezoid is a quadrilateral that has four sides, out of four, one pair of sides is parallel. Here we will discuss how to find area of a trapezoid. Formula for the area of a trapezoid is given by:
Area of a trapezoid = ½ * (b₁ + b₂) * h, here ' b₁' and 'b₂' are two bases and 'h' represents the height of trapezoid.
With help of Area of Trapezoid we can also find height of a trapezoid.
Height = (2 * area) / (b₁ + b₂);
Now we will discuss some steps to find the area of trapezoid which is shown below:
Step 1: To find the area of trapezoid length of two bases and height of trapezoid must be known.
Step 2: Then put values of base and height in formula given above and simplify the expression, result we get is the area of trapezoid. Let’s understand these steps with help of small example:
Example 1: - Find the area of trapezoid whose bases are 10 inch and 4 inch respectively and height is 10 inch?
Solution: As we know that the formula to find the area of trapezoid is given by:
Area of trapezoid = (b₁ + b₂ / 2). h, here ‘b₁’ and 'b₂' represents length of each base of trapezoid and ‘h’ denotes height of trapezoid.
Given, bases = 10 inch, 4 inch and Height = 10 inch. Now put these given values in formula to find the area of trapezoid.
Area of trapezoid = (b₁ + b₂ / 2).h,
Area of trapezoid = (10 + 4 / 2) * 10,
Area of trapezoid = (14 / 2) * 10,
Area of trapezoid = (7) * 10,
Area of trapezoid = 70 inch².
So after solving we get area of trapezoid equals to 70 inch².
This is how we solve area of trapezoid.