Area of Parallelograms and Triangles
Interact with the activity below to answer the following questions.
1. Find the area of the rectangle.
2. Drag the slider through the animation to see a triangular piece of the rectangle moved to create a parallelogram. Find the area of the parallelogram. How did you come to this conclusion?
3. The formula for the area of a parallelogram is A = base * height. Why does this make better sense than trying to multiply the length by the width as you would for a rectangle?
4. Cut along the diagonal of the parallelogram (Check the box below). What is the result?
The formula for the area of a triangle is A = (base * height)/2. Based on what you have discovered why does this make sense?