Question 273725
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Probably the same way you would explain it to anyone else.  The first thing you would need to do is to determine what the teacher listening to the explanation believes the word "trapezoid" to mean.  If s/he is in the UK, s/he might believe the term "trapezoid" refers to a general quadrilateral having no parallel sides.  In that case you would politely explain that there is no general method for finding the area of a trapezoid other than dividing the figure into two triangles, attempting to determine the areas of the two triangles, and then summing the two areas.  On the other hand, particularly if your audience is from the US, I would say take the average of the measures of the two parallel sides, then multiply that result times the altitude of the trapezoid which is defined as the distance between the two parallel sides.


John
*[tex \LARGE e^{i\pi} + 1 = 0]
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