Area of Polygons | FIO

Question 32

[Śulba-Sūtras] Give a method to convert an isosceles trapezium to a rectangle using dissection.

Solution

Understand the Question

An isosceles trapezium can be transformed into an equivalent rectangle of the same area using geometric dissection (as described in the ancient Indian mathematical texts, the Śulba-Sūtras). By dropping perpendiculars from the top vertices to the base, the trapezium is split into a central rectangle and two congruent right-angled triangles. Cutting one of these triangular wings and reattaching it at the opposite end produces a rectangle with height $h$ and length equal to the average of the two parallel sides, $\dfrac{a + b}{2}$ .

Step 1 · Define the Trapezium and its Area

Let $\text{ABCD}$ be an isosceles trapezium with parallel sides $\text{AB} = a$ and $\text{DC} = b$ , height $h$ , and non-parallel sides $\text{AD} = \text{BC}$ . Diagram 1

The area of the trapezium is:

\begin{aligned} \text{Area}_{\text{trapezium}} &= \dfrac{1}{2} \times (\text{AB} + \text{DC}) \times h \\[0.6em] &= \dfrac{1}{2} \times (a + b) \times h \\[0.6em] &= \dfrac{(a + b)h}{2} \end{aligned}

Step 2 · Dissect and Rearrange into a Rectangle

Draw perpendiculars $\text{AE}$ and $\text{BF}$ from vertices $\text{A}$ and $\text{B}$ to base $\text{DC}$ , each of length $h$ .

This divides the trapezium into three parts:

Right triangle $\triangle \text{ADE}$
Rectangle $\text{AEFB}$ with $\text{EF} = \text{AB} = a$
Right triangle $\triangle \text{BFC}$

Since $\text{ABCD}$ is an isosceles trapezium, $\triangle \text{ADE} \cong \triangle \text{BFC}$ :

\begin{aligned} \text{DE} = \text{FC} &= \dfrac{\text{DC} - \text{AB}}{2} \\[0.6em] &= \dfrac{b - a}{2} \end{aligned}

Now, cut off $\triangle \text{ADE}$ from the left side and attach it to the right side such that $\text{AE}$ aligns with $\text{BF}$ . Diagram 2

Dimensions of the resulting rectangle:

$\text{Height}_{\text{rectangle}} = h$

\begin{aligned} \text{Length}_{\text{rectangle}} &= \text{EF} + \text{FC} \\[0.6em] &= a + \dfrac{b - a}{2} \\[0.6em] &= \dfrac{2a + b - a}{2} \\[0.6em] &= \dfrac{a + b}{2} \end{aligned}

\begin{aligned} \text{Area}_{\text{rectangle}} &= \text{Length}_{\text{rectangle}} \times \text{Height}_{\text{rectangle}} \\[0.6em] &= \dfrac{a + b}{2} \times h \\[0.6em] &= \dfrac{(a + b)h}{2} \end{aligned}

Thus, the area is conserved, forming a rectangle with dimensions $\dfrac{a + b}{2} \times h$ .

Answer

Drop perpendiculars from the endpoints of the shorter base $\text{AB}$ to the longer base $\text{DC}$ , forming two congruent right triangles $\triangle \text{ADE}$ and $\triangle \text{BFC}$ and a rectangle $\text{AEFB}$ .

Cut off $\triangle \text{ADE}$ from the left and reattach it to the right along side $\text{BF}$ .
The resulting figure is a rectangle of length $\dfrac{a + b}{2}$ and height $h$ .

Common Mistakes

Congruence Requirement: This exact single-cut method works because the trapezium is isosceles (both end triangles are identical). For a non-isosceles trapezium, the two end triangles have different base lengths and cannot simply be shifted to match.
Base Calculation: The base of the new rectangle is the average of the two parallel sides $\dfrac{a+b}{2}$ , not the original full base $b$ or shorter base $a$ .

More questions in FIO

Identify the missing sidelengths.

The figure shows a path (the shaded portion) laid around a rectangular park EFGH.

(i) What measurements do you need to find the area of the path? Once you identify the lengths to be measured, assign possible values of your choice to these measurements and find the area of the path. Give a formula for the area.

An example of a formula — $\text{Area of a rectangle} = \text{length} \times \text{width}$ .

[Hint: There is a relation between the areas of EFGH, the path, and ABCD.**]

(ii) If the width of the path along each side is given, can you find its area? If not, what other measurements do you need? Assign values of your choice to these measurements and find the area of the path. Give a formula for the area using these measurements.

[Hint: Break the path into rectangles.**]

(iii) Does the area of the path change when the outer rectangle is moved while keeping the inner rectangular park EFGH inside it, as shown?

The figure shows a plot with sides $14\text{ m}$ and $12\text{ m}$ , and with a crosspath. What other measurements do you need to find the area of the crosspath? Once you identify the lengths to be measured, assign some possible values of your choice and find the area of the path. Give a formula for the area based on the measurements you choose.

Find the area of the spiral tube shown in the figure. The tube has the same width throughout.

[Hint: There are different ways of finding the area. Here is one method.]

What should be the length of the straight tube if it is to have the same area as the bent tube on the left?

In this figure, if the sidelength of the square is doubled, what is the increase in the areas of the regions 1, 2 and 3? Give reasons.

Divide a square into 4 parts by drawing two perpendicular lines inside the square as shown in the figure.

Rearrange the pieces to get a larger square, with a hole inside.

You can try this activity by constructing the square using cardboard, thick chart paper, or similar materials.

Find the areas of the following triangles:

Find the length of the altitude $\text{BY}$ .

Find the area of $\Delta\text{SUB}$ , given that it is isosceles, $\text{SE}$ is perpendicular to $\text{UB}$ , and the area of $\Delta\text{SEB}$ is $24\text{ sq. units}$ .

Q10

[Śulba-Sūtras] Give a method to transform a rectangle into a triangle of equal area.

Q11

[Śulba-Sūtras] Give a method to transform a triangle into a rectangle of equal area.

Q12

ABCD, BCEF, and BFGH are identical squares.

(i) If the area of the red region is 49 sq. units, then what is the area of the blue region?

(ii) In another version of this figure, if the total area enclosed by the blue and red regions is 180 sq. units, then what is the area of each square?

Q13

If $M$ and $N$ are the midpoints of $XY$ and $XZ$ , what fraction of the area of $\Delta\text{XYZ}$ is the area of $\Delta\text{XMN}$ ? [Hint: Join $NY$ ]

Q14

Gopal needs to carry water from the river to his water tank. He starts from his house. What is the shortest path he can take from his house to the river and then to the water tank? Roughly recreate the map in your notebook and trace the shortest path.

Q15

Find the area of the quadrilateral $ABCD$ given that $AC = 22\text{ cm}$ , $BM = 3\text{ cm}$ , $DN = 3\text{ cm}$ , $BM$ is perpendicular to $AC$ , and $DN$ is perpendicular to $AC$ .

Q16

Find the area of the shaded region given that ABCD is a rectangle.

Q17

What measurements would you need to find the area of a regular hexagon?

Q18

What fraction of the total area of the rectangle is the area of the blue region?

Q19

Give a method to obtain a quadrilateral whose area is half that of a given quadrilateral.

Q20

Observe the parallelograms in the figure below.

(i) What can we say about the areas of all these parallelograms?

(ii) What can we say about their perimeters? Which figure appears to have the maximum perimeter, and which has the minimum perimeter?

Q21

Find the areas of the following parallelograms:

Q22

Find $\text{QN}$ .

Q23

Consider a rectangle and a parallelogram of the same sidelengths: $5\text{ cm}$ and $4\text{ cm}$ . Which has the greater area? [Hint: Imagine constructing them on the same base.]

Q24

Give a method to obtain a rectangle whose area is twice that of a given triangle. What are the different methods that you can think of?

Q25

[Śulba-Sūtras] Give a method to obtain a rectangle of the same area as a given triangle.

Q26

[Śulba-Sūtras] An isosceles triangle can be converted into a rectangle by dissection in a simpler way. Can you find out how to do it?

[Hint: Show that triangles $\Delta \text{ADB}$ and $\Delta \text{ADC}$ can be made into halves of a rectangle. Figure out how they should be assembled to get a rectangle. Use cut-outs if necessary.]

Q27

[Śulba-Sūtras] Give a method to convert a rectangle into an isosceles triangle by dissection.

Q28

Which has greater area—an equilateral triangle or a square of the same sidelength as the triangle? Which has greater area—two identical equilateral triangles together or a square of the same sidelength as the triangle? Give reasons.

Q29

Find the area of a rhombus whose diagonals are $20\text{ cm}$ and $15\text{ cm}$ .

Q30

Give a method to convert a rectangle into a rhombus of equal area using dissection.

Q31

Find the areas of the following figures:

Q32

[Śulba-Sūtras] Give a method to convert an isosceles trapezium to a rectangle using dissection.

Q33

Here is one of the ways to convert trapezium $ABCD$ into a rectangle $EFGH$ of equal area —

Given the trapezium $ABCD$ , how do we find the vertices of the rectangle $EFGH$ ?

[Hint: If $\Delta AHI \cong \Delta DGI$ and $\Delta BEJ \cong \Delta CFJ$ , then the trapezium and rectangle have equal areas.]

Q34

Using the idea of converting a trapezium into a rectangle of equal area, and vice versa, construct a trapezium of area $144\text{ cm}^2$ .

Q35

A regular hexagon is divided into a trapezium, an equilateral triangle, and a rhombus, as shown. Find the ratio of their areas.

Q36

ZYXW is a trapezium with $ZY \parallel WX$ . $A$ is the midpoint of $XY$ . Show that the area of the trapezium ZYXW is equal to the area of $\triangle ZWB$ .