McGraw Hill Glencoe Geometry, 2012
MH
McGraw Hill Glencoe Geometry, 2012 View details
1. Areas of Parallelograms and Triangles
Continue to next subchapter

Exercise 18 Page 784

To find the area of a parallelogram, calculate the product of the base and its corresponding height.

169.7mm^2

Practice makes perfect

The area of a parallelogram is the product of a base and its corresponding height.

We can consider the side whose length is 14 milimeters as the base. However, we need to find the height. To do so, we will pay close attention to the right triangle formed by the height, a side, and a part of a nonparallel side.

We can see that the measure of two of the interior angles of the triangle are 60^(∘) and 90^(∘). We can use the Triangle Angle Sum Theorem to find the measure of the third angle. 180^(∘)- 90^(∘)- 60^(∘)=30^(∘) The third angle measures 30^(∘) and, therefore, we have a 30^(∘)-60^(∘)-90^(∘) triangle. In this type of triangle the length of the longer leg is sqrt(3) times the length of the shorter leg. With this information, and knowing that the shorter leg measures 7 milimeters, we can find the length of the longer leg. Longer Leg: sqrt(3) * 7=7sqrt(3) Therefore, the height of the parallelogram is 7sqrt(3)mm.

Now that we know that the base is 14mm and that the height is 7sqrt(3)mm, we can substitute these values in the formula for the area of a parallelogram.
A=bh
A=(14)(7sqrt(3))
Evaluate right-hand side
A=98sqrt(3)
A=169.740979...
A ≈ 169.7
The area of the parallelogram to the nearest tenth is 169.7 square millimeters.