Trapezoid facts for kids

A trapezoid (in North America) or trapezium (in Britain and elsewhere) is a quadrilateral, which is defined as a shape with four sides, which has one set of parallel sides. In North America, the term "trapezium" is used for what is elsewhere called an irregular quadrilateral.

Calculating area

To calculate the area of a trapezoid, you must add the two parallel sides together, divide that by 2, then times that by its height.

$A = \frac{a + b}{2} \cdot h$

Images for kids

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  Trapezoid special cases. The orange figures also qualify as parallelograms.

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  The Temple of Dendur in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City