Q:

Mr. Husted has a wooden parallelogram which has a height of 4 centimeters and a base of 11 centimeters. Ms. Henningsen also has a parallelogram which has a height of 7 centimeters and a base of .15 meters. What is the combined area of their parallelograms in kilometers? (show work)

Accepted Solution

A:
"a base of 11 centimeters" is ambiguous.  Does that mean that the sum of the sides of the base is 11 cm?  Is the base square or is it a parallelogram (squares are parallelograms)?

Supposing that the base is square, then its area is (11 cm)^2, or 121 cm^2.
Taking the total of the top and bottom, we get 242 cm^2.  The area of each of the four sides would then be (4 cm)(11 cm) = 44 cm^2, so that the total area of the four sides would be 176 cm^2.  Total area:  (176+242) cm^2.

You could find the surface area of Ms. Henningsen's parallelogram in the same manner.

If, on the other hand, the bases of the parallelograms are not square, then more info is needed to answer this question.  To what does "a base of 11 cm" pertain?  What would the length and width be?