How to find Area of a Parallelogram in 4 Easy Steps

Get the free Area of a Parallelogram worksheet and other resources for teaching & understanding how to find Area of a Parallelogram

A Quick Summary for finding Area of a Parallelogram

A parallelogram is a 2-D four sided figure that has two different sets of parallel sides. The sides that are across from each other are always the same length in size. The angles that are across from each other always have the same degree measure. In order to find the Area of a Parallelogram, you have to multiply the length of the base by the length of the height. Finding the Area of a Parallelogram follows the same formula as finding the area of a rectangle. The difference is that a parallelogram may have slanted sides that are not at a 90 degree angle, so you cannot use the side length as the height. The height will always be at a 90 degree angle, or perpendicular, to the base.Typically, you will see a dotted line in a parallelogram that represents the height.

Common Core Standard: 6.G.1

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How to complete Area of a Parallelogram Example Problems

A parallelogram is a 2-D four sided shape that has parallel sides on both sides of the figure. The parallel sides that are opposite one another will be the same length. The angles that are opposite one another will have the same degree measure. To find how to find the Area of a Parallelogram, you need to multiply the length of the height by the length of the base. Finding the Area of a Parallelogram is similar to finding the area of a square shape. The thing that matters is that a parallelogram may have inclined sides that are not perpendicular with the base, so you can’t utilize the side length as the height. So how to find the height of a parallelogram? The height must be perpendicular with the base. Usually the height is depicted as a dashed line.

4 Quick Steps for Solving Area of a Parallelogram Problems

Determine the length of the base of the parallelogram examples.
Determine the height of the parallelogram.
Multiple the length of the base by the height of the parallelogram.
Make sure you use the correct units once you know the parallelogram area.

Watch the video explanation for our Area of a Parallelogram Worksheet

Watch our free video on how to find Area of a Parallelogram. This video shows how to solve problems that are on our free Area of Parallelogram worksheet that you can get by submitting your email above.

Watch the free Area of a Parallelogram video on YouTube here: Area of a Parallelogram Video

Video Transcript:

This video is about how to find the area of a parallelogram. You can get the parallelogram problems worksheets used in this video for free by clicking on the link in the description below. Finding the area of a parallelogram is the same as finding the area of a rectangle. The formula for finding area of a rectangle is area equals base times the height. The formula for finding area of a parallelogram is also area equals base times the height. A parallelogram is just a figure where the opposite sides are parallel to each other. In the case of the example shown here you can see that this side is parallel with this side and then the top and bottom sides this side and this side are also parallel with each other. You can think of a parallelogram as kind of like a rectangle that has been pushed over or slanted at its angle. Whereas, rectangles have 90-degree angles where the sides meet the base parallelograms will not be. In order to find the area of a parallelogram you will use the same formula that you use to find the area of a rectangle. That means we’re going to use the area is equal to the base times the height.

In the case of this example here, our base which is the distance of the long side of the parallelogram is 12 feet. We know the base is 12 feet and we also know the height is 6 feet and I know this is the height because it’s the distance between the two sides of the parallelogram. In order to find the area, we’re just going to multiply the base which is 12 feet. We’re going to do 12 times the height which is 6 feet. Then when you multiply 12 times 6 you will get 72 feet squared and that’s going to be the area of this parallelogram. Let’s do a couple practice problems on our area of a parallelogram worksheet.

The first problem on our area of a parallelogram worksheets gives us a parallelogram where our base is 15 inches and our height is 8 inches. Remember the area of a parallelogram is base times the height. In the case of this problem I know that 15 is the base because it’s the long side on the outside of the parallelogram and I know that eight is the height because it’s the distance between the two parallel sides. In our formula we’re going to use 15 for the base times 8 for the height. When you multiply 15 times 8 you get 120 and our units are inches so it will be 120 inches squared and that’s the area of this parallelogram.

The second problem for showing you how to find the area of a parallelogram that we’re going to use is number two. Remember our formula is area equals base times the height. In the case of number two I know that the base is 20 because it’s the long side on the outer edge of our parallelogram and I know the height is 10 because it’s the distance between the two parallel sides. We’re going to multiply 20 inches for the base times 10 inches for the height. The area will be 20 times 10 which is 200 and our units are inches. We’re going to use inches and that is squared because we’re talking about area. The area of this parallelogram is 200 inches squared.

Number three on our area of a parallelogram worksheet gives us a parallelogram that has a base of five inches and a height of two inches. Now this one’s a little different because the orientation of this parallelogram is vertical. I know that this 5 is the base because this 5 refers to the outer edge of the parallelogram. I also know that this 2 represents the height because even though it’s running horizontally it’s still showing you the distance between this side over to this side. It still represents the distance between the two parallel sides and that means that it’s going to represent the height. When inputting this into the formula for finding area of a parallelogram we’re going to use 5 for the base multiplied by 2 for the height. 5 times 2 is 10 and then our units are feet so it’s going to be 10 feet squared. hopefully you found this video helpful for answering the question how to find the area of a parallelogram.