Area of parallelograms and triangles

In a nutshell

Formulae are used to calculate the area of parallelograms and triangles.

Area of a parallelogram

A parallelogram is a slanted rectangle. You can work out the area of a parallelogram using the following formula.

A=b \times h

$A$	The area of the parallelogram.
$b$	The length of the base of the parallelogram.
$h$	The perpendicular height of the parallelogram.

Example 1

Find the area of the parallelogram.

$4m$
	$5m$

The base of the parallelogram is $5m$ and the perpendicular height is $4m$ . Insert these values into the formula to work out the area.

$Area = b \times h \\Area = 5 \times 4 \\\underline{Area = 20 m^2}$

Area of a triangle

You can work out the area of a triangle using the following formula.

A= \dfrac{1}{2} \times b \times h

$A$	The area of the triangle.
$b$	The length of the base of the triangle.
$h$	The perpendicular height of the triangle.

Example 2

Find the area of the triangle.

Maths; Measurement; KS2 Year 6; Area of parallelograms and triangles

This triangle has a height of $4cm$ and a base length of $6cm$ . Insert these values into the formula.

$\begin{aligned}Area &= \dfrac{1}{2} \times \ b \times \ h \\ \\ Area&= \dfrac{1}{2} \times 6 \times 4 \\ \\Area &= \dfrac{24}{2} \\\\\end{aligned} \\ \underline{Area = 12cm^2}$