Skip to main content
OlympiadHQ

Browse · MATH

Print

jmc

geometry intermediate

Problem

In trapezoid , the parallel sides and have lengths of 8 and 20 units, respectively, and the altitude is 12 units. Points and are the midpoints of sides and , respectively. What is the area of quadrilateral in square units?
Solution
Since and are midpoints of the legs of the trapezoid, quadrilateral is a trapezoid with half the altitude of the original trapezoid (the altitude of trapezoid is ). The length of base is still , but now we have to find the length of base . Since connects the midpoints of the legs of the trapezoid, its length is also the average of the lengths of and . Thus, has length . Finally, we can find the area of the trapezoid with the formula where is the altitude and and are the lengths of the bases. The area of trapezoid is square units.
Final answer
102