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6th grade

Course: 6th grade > Unit 8

Lesson 1: Areas of parallelograms
Math
6th grade
Plane figures
Areas of parallelograms
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Area of parallelograms

Google Classroom
Understand how to find the area of a parallelogram and why it works.

Intuition for why the area of a parallelogram is A=bh

The formula for the area of a parallelogram is base times height, just like the formula for the area of a rectangle.
But wait! Why are the formulas the same? Look what happens when we slide part of the parallelogram to the right.
Genius! We made the parallelogram into a rectangle.
Key intuition: We can make every parallelogram into a rectangle, which is why we use the same formula to find the area of a parallelogram and a rectangle.

Practice problem 1

Find the area of the parallelogram.
  • Your answer should be
  • an integer, like 6
  • a simplified proper fraction, like 3/5
  • a simplified improper fraction, like 7/4
  • a mixed number, like 1 3/4
  • an exact decimal, like 0.75
  • a multiple of pi, like 12 pi or 2/3 pi
square units

Practice problem 2

Find the area of the parallelogram.
  • Your answer should be
  • an integer, like 6
  • a simplified proper fraction, like 3/5
  • a simplified improper fraction, like 7/4
  • a mixed number, like 1 3/4
  • an exact decimal, like 0.75
  • a multiple of pi, like 12 pi or 2/3 pi
square units

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