Thread: How do i find area of trapezoid using vector cross product?

i know the regular cross product gives the area of parallelogram, but how do i find the area of trapezoid?

Originally Posted by MottoV2

i know the regular cross product gives the area of parallelogram, but how do i find the area of trapezoid?

You can partition any trapezoid into two triangles.
The area of any triangle is one-half the corresponding parallelogram:
, where are adjacent sides.

so that means the area of trapezoid is same as the area of parallelogram?

edit: oh wait, are they divided into identical triangles?

edit again: k i got it :-D. thx

They don't have to necessarily be equal.

Originally Posted by MottoV2

so that means the area of trapezoid is same as the area of parallelogram? edit: oh wait, are they divided into identical triangles?

No. There are most likely two different triangles.
Find the area of each and add together.