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Area of a parallelogram
From Latin: area - "level ground, an open space,"
The number of square units it takes to completely fill a parallelogram.
Formula: Base × Altitude
Try this Drag the orange dots to move and resize the parallelogram. As the size of the parallelogram changes, the area is recalculated.
(If there is no image below, see support page.)

Area formula

The area of a rectangle is given by the formula

where
B is the length of any base
A is the corresponding altitude

Recall that any side can be chosen as the base. You must use the altitude that goes with the base you choose. The altitude (or height) of a parallelogram is the perpendicular distance from the base to the opposite side (which may have to be extended). In the figure above, the altitude corresponding to the base CD is shown.

Try this
  1. In the figure above, click on "hide details"
  2. Drag the orange dots on the vertices to make a random-size parallelogram.
  3. Now try to estimate the area of the parallelogram just looking at the squares inside it
When you done click "show details" to see how close you got.

Related polygon topics

General

Types of polygon

Area of various polygon types

Perimeter of various polygon types

Angles associated with polygons

Named polygons

(C) 2007 Copyright John Page