How to Quickly find the area of a trapezoid

In this video, Mr. Maisonet provides a quick and easy method for calculating the area of a trapezoid. In the first step, The lengths of the two bases (the two sides of a trapezoid that are parallel to one another) are averaged. The lengths of the bases are first added together, and the sum is divided by two, yielding the average. The average is then multiplied by the height. The resulting product is the area of the trapezoid. This method for finding the area of a trapezoid is mathematically similar to that used for finding the area of a rectangle, differing in that the two bases of the trapezoid are averaged in order to yield a term that serves the same function as that of the base in a rectangle.