Answer:
26 ft²
Step-by-step explanation:
You want the area of a 7 ft by 5 ft rectangle with a 3 ft square removed from the lower left corner.
Area
The area of the figure can be decomposed several ways into figures for which area formulas exist:
- the horizontal line can be extended, creating 7×2 and 4×3 rectangles
- the vertical line can be extended, creating 3×2 and 4×5 rectangles
- a line can be drawn from the inside corner to the outside corner, creating two trapezoids, one with height 2 and bases 3 and 7, and the other with height 4 and bases 3 and 5.
Any of these decompositions will give the same area as treating the figure as a 7 ft × 5 ft rectangle with a 3 ft × 3 ft square removed:
A = (7 ft)(5 ft) -(3 ft)(3 ft) = (35 -9) ft² = 26 ft²
The area of the figure is 26 ft².
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Additional comment
The area of a rectangle is the product of its length and width.
A = LW
The area of a trapezoid is given by ...
A = 1/2(b₁ +b₂)h
where b₁ and b₂ are the parallel bases, h is the distance between them.
