An 8x5 rectangle. If the bottom left corner is considered (0, 0), then two lines are drawn within the rectangle, from (0, 4) to (8, 1) and from (1, 5) to (7, 0). The smaller two regions of the four these lines cut the rectangle into are shaded. What is their combined area?
It is symmetrical across the diagonal so we will only look at the top left quarter, then multiply by 2 when we are done. Because it is 1/4 of the rectangle it has area 1/4 of the original. 1/4 x 8x5 = 10. This leaves two right triangles and the grey area. The top right triangle has a base of (8/2)-1=3 And height of 5/2=2.5 Area = 1/2 x 3 x 2.5 = 3.75 The bottom left triangle has height of (5/2)-1=1.5 And base of 8/2=4 Area = 1/2 x 1.5 x 4 = 3 Top left grey area is the area of the the quarter minus the areas of the two right triangles = 10 - 3.75 - 3 = 3.25 There are two of these gray areas so final answer is 2 x 3.25 = 6.5