Plane Areas & Trapezoidal Rule
Key ideas
- Rectangle: \(A = lw\)
- Triangle: \(A = \tfrac12 bh\)
- Circle: \(A = \pi r^2\)
- Trapezium: \(A = \dfrac{b_1 + b_2}{2}h\)
- Trapezoidal rule: \[ A \approx \frac{w}{2}\bigl(y_0 + 2(y_1+\dots+y_{n-1}) + y_n\bigr) \]
Example 1 — Field area
The spacing is \(24\text{ m}\). The perpendicular measurements are \(84, 54, 45, 66, 54, 66, 96\). Use the trapezoidal rule to estimate the area of the field.