Anonymous

How Do You Find The Area For Irregular Shapes?

21

21 Answers

Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Break it up into smaller shapes, like rectangles and squares. Then you find the area of all the small shapes and add them up.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Break it down into smaller shapes, like squares and rectangle. Then calculate the area of the broken down shapes. Then you add up the area of the smaller shapes.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Well you have to find all of the shapes you can and then you have to find the area for each shape. When your done  with that you now have to add all of the areas up and you get your answer
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered

It depends on the polygon. The definition of a polygon is the space enclosed by three or more line segments.

Types of polygons by number of sides:
3 - triangle
4 - quadrilateral
5 - pentagon
6 - hexagon
7 - heptagon
8 - octagon
9 - nonagon
10 - decagon

If your polygon is made from various shapes: Triangle(s), rectangles, etc. You have to calculate the area for each of the shapes, then add them together.

The area for a square is A = s squared
The area for a trapezoid is A = 1/2 (base 1 + base 2)h
The area for a rectangle is A = bh
The area for a triangle is A = 1/2bh
The area for a parrallelogram is A = bh

Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Yeah your right last guest girl
Tauseef Sheikh Profile
Tauseef Sheikh answered
Divide the irregular shape into little shapes and then find the area (height x Breath) of these little shapes. When you get the area of these smaller shapes then add the areas of all these shapes in order to get the total.
thanked the writer.
hunter lans
hunter lans commented
I don't fully understand what you are saying. You said to divide it into little shapes how do you do that?
Anonymous
Anonymous commented
Floreay, what he means is well, divide it into shapes! Wherever you see a place where you could draw a line to make a square or rectangle, draw it! Then you go from there.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
All you have to do is estimate then calculate your answer then predict! Easy as that!
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Just find the rectangle that fits into the shape as best you can. Multiply length times width. Any shapes left over just discard as they are not important. Hope that helps! :)
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Listen all you have to do is multiply the base by the height after that multiply it by pi which is 3.14 then subtract  it by .50 and thats your answer
Oddman Profile
Oddman answered
It depends on the shape and what you know about it.

If it is a plane shape that can be decomposed into shapes for which an area formula is known, then one can sum the areas according to the known formulas.

If it is a plane polygon whose vertex coordinates are known, the area can be computed as the sum and difference of trapezoid areas, where each consecutive pair of vertices is one of the sides of the trapezoid whose bases are the segments between those points and the x-axis (for example).

If it is a shape described by a formula, integration of the formula using the methods of calculus can give you the area.

If it is a shape that can be cut from a piece of paper, the cutting can be weighed and compared to the weight of a unit of area. Alternatively, a grid can be overlaid on the shape and the grid squares counted that are half or more inside the shape.

If the shape is three dimensional, similar techniques (divide and conquer; integration) can be used. Also, the shape can be painted or covered uniformly with some coating, and the coating weighed. If it is thinly and uniformly applied, its volume (or weight) will correspond to the area of the shape it covers.
Oddman Profile
Oddman answered
If it is bounded by straight lines, you can often calculate the area based on the formula for the area of a triangle. If you have the equation for the boundary, sometimes you can use calculus (integration) to determine the area.

If it is not bounded by something for which you have the equation, you can create a scale model of the shape from uniformly dense material, weigh the model, and calculate the area based on the density of the material.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Dude, first of all you don't just draw a line to create a shape, what kind? Well make a dotted line. You make a dotted line because the irregular figure wasn't born with that line on it. And by the way when you put a line it's called partitioning. Also when you divide the irregular you won 't get another irregular shape. There you go dummies.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
To find the area of an irregular shape, you need to cut up the shape till you find a triangle in it. Like in a irregular quadrilateral you can cut up the shape till you get two triangles. After that find the area of the triangles. To do this you need to do the base divided by two then times by the height of the triangle. Then do that for all of the triangles that are in your shape, then add them up. Then that's how you get the area to the shape.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
You divide into little shapes.
Ok say you have... Um a mushroom shape.
You can divide the top half in to a semi circle.
Then you can divide the bottom into a rectangle.
Hope you got it a lil bit. I can't fully explain without drawing tools..
=]
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
You divide into little shapes.
Ok say you have... Um a mushroom
shape.
You can divide the top half in to a semi circle.
Then you can divide the bottom into a rectangle.
Hope you got it a lil bit
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Theres to different formulas theres one for the Triangle with is length times width times height times 1 half. The formula for a rectangle or a square it would be length times width times height .
Oddman Profile
Oddman answered
The best you can do is an approximation, unless you know more details.

If you have sufficient information to be able to divide it into triangles, you can add the areas of those. To find the area of a triangle, you need to know its base and height, or at least one side and two other measures (angle or side).

If two sides are parallel, you can use the trapezoid formula or you can compute area from the measures of the four sides.

Given the measures of the four sides and one angle, you can compute the area. For most of these computations, the Pythagorean Theorem and/or trigonometry are involved.

Answer Question

Anonymous