SOLUTION: solve for b A=1/2h(B+b) Area of Trapezoid also solve for b A=1/2(16)(20+b)

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Question 84811: solve for b
A=1/2h(B+b) Area of Trapezoid

also solve for b
A=1/2(16)(20+b)
Answer by Spec80(9) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Ok, for the 1st one it seems like you want to solve for the small b, so thats what we are going to do
A=%281%2F2%29h+%28B%2Bb%29
First step is to get (B+b) by itself, to do this we 1st multiply both sides by 2 to get:
2A=h+%28B%2Bb%29
Second to again get (B+b) by itself on one side, we divide both sides by h to get:
2A%2Fh=%28B%2Bb%29
Finally we subtract B from both sides to get:
2A%2Fh+-+B+=b
For the second part we can begin by simplfying. To do this, we will first find 1/2 of 16 so the equation will look like:
A=8+%2820%2Bb%29
Then we can distribute the 8 into the parenthesis to get:
A=160%2B8b
Next step would be to subtract 160 from both sides to get:
A-160=8b
Finally we would divide both sides by 8 to get b by itself:
+%28A-160%29%2F8=b+