Question

Find the missing dimension.

Answer 1

Answer:

2 m

Step-by-step explanation:

Here the area and the lengths of the two parallel sides of this trapezoid are given:

A = 7m^2, b1 = 3 m and b2 = 4 m.  What's missing is the width of the trapezoid.

First we write out the formula for the area of a trapezoid:

       b1 + b2

A = --------------- * w, where w represents the width of the figure.

             2

We need to solve this for the width, w.  Multiplying both sides of the above equation by

     2

------------

b1 + b2

results in

 2A

------------ = w

b1 + b2

Substituting 7 m^2 for A, 3 m for b1 and 4 m for b2 results in

        2(7 m^2)           14 m^2

w = ------------------ = ---------------- = 2 m

        (3 + 4) m             7 m

The missing dimension is the width of the figure.  This width is 2 m.