Question Video: Finding the Length of a Segment in a Trapezium | Nagwa Question Video: Finding the Length of a Segment in a Trapezium | Nagwa

Question Video: Finding the Length of a Segment in a Trapezium

If 𝐡𝐴 = 24 cm and 𝐷𝐢 = 26 cm, find the length of line segment 𝐾𝐹.

02:07

Video Transcript

If 𝐡𝐴 equals 24 centimetres and 𝐷𝐢 equals 26 centimetres, find the length of line segment 𝐾𝐹.

Let’s start this question by having a look at the diagram. We can see that we have an outer quadrilateral 𝐢𝐷𝐴𝐡. But which particular quadrilateral is it? Well, we can see from the diagram that it has a pair of parallel sides. And as it doesn’t have any 90-degree angles marked, then we could say that 𝐢𝐷𝐴𝐡 must be a trapezoid. It can be easy to think that a trapezoid must always look in the way we usually see them, with a larger base at the bottom. But since it just has to have a pair of parallel sides, then this is what we have with 𝐢𝐷𝐴𝐡.

The question is asking us to find the length of line segment 𝐾𝐹. We can see in our diagram that line segment 𝐢𝐾 is equal to line segment 𝐡𝐾, which means that 𝐾 must be the midpoint of line segment 𝐢𝐡. On the other side of our trapezoid, we can see that the line segment 𝐷𝐹 is equal to the line segment 𝐴𝐹. Therefore, 𝐹 must be the midpoint of line segment 𝐷𝐴. So, if we look at our line segment 𝐾𝐹, then we can say that this must be the midsegment of our trapezoid since the midsegment of a trapezoid is the segment connecting the mid points of the two nonparallel sides.

We can find the length of the mid segment by taking half the sum of the lengths of the two parallel sides. So, to find our line segment 𝐾𝐹, we’ll have our length 𝐷𝐢 plus the length of 𝐡𝐴. And we find half of that answer. We’re given that the length of 𝐷𝐢 is 26 centimetres. And we add our value for 𝐡𝐴, which is 24 centimetres, and divide by two. Adding our 26 and 24 will give us 50. And 50 over two is 25. And so, our answer, including the units, for line segment 𝐾𝐹 is 25 centimetres.

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