Trapezoid Area Calculator
Enter the two parallel sides (top base a, bottom base b) and the perpendicular height h of a trapezoid to instantly get its area and midsegment (mean of the two bases). Add the two non-parallel sides (legs c, d) and you also get the perimeter plus automatic classification (isosceles, right, scalene or parallelogram). Handy for geometry homework, plot or flooring layouts and roof cross-section calculations.
Legs (optional)
Enter the two non-parallel sides (left leg c, right leg d) to get perimeter and shape — leave empty if you only need the area.
Both bases and height must be greater than 0; legs cannot be negative.
Heads up: the legs do not match the height / base offset — √(c² − h²) + √(d² − h²) ≠ |b − a|, so a real trapezoid with these measurements cannot be drawn. The area is still computed from (a + b)/2 × h, but the shape itself may not exist.
Area
28
unit² of the input length
Midsegment
7
= (a + b) / 2
Perimeter
24
Needs both c and d
Shape
Isosceles (c = d)
Based on sides and height
Area works for any trapezoid; perimeter only appears once both legs are filled in.
Formula
A = (a + b) / 2 × h | midsegment m = (a + b) / 2 | perimeter P = a + b + c + d
- · The area formula applies to every trapezoid — isosceles, right, or scalene — as long as h is the perpendicular distance between the two parallel sides.
- · The midsegment connects the midpoints of the two legs and always equals the arithmetic mean of the bases — handy for offset / setting-out work.
- · When the top base a equals the bottom base b the shape degenerates to a parallelogram (and to a rhombus or square if all four sides are equal); the formulas still hold.
- · Bases plus height are all you need for area. To get the perimeter as well, fill in both leg lengths c and d.
- · The tool checks whether √(c² − h²) + √(d² − h²) equals |b − a|; if it does not, you get an amber warning — the entered legs cannot actually close into a trapezoid with that height and base difference.
- · Inputs are unit-agnostic: metres in → m² out, feet in → ft² out, centimetres in → cm² out.
- · References: Bronshtein & Semendyayev, "Handbook of Mathematics" 6th ed., §2.6.4; MathWorld entry "Trapezoid".
Frequently asked
Is a "trapezoid" the same as a British "trapezium"?
In US English a "trapezoid" and in UK English a "trapezium" usually refer to the same shape: a quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides (some textbooks insist on exactly one pair). Confusingly the words swap in UK usage — a UK "trapezoid" is a general quadrilateral with no parallel sides. This calculator uses the US / Chinese sense ("梯形"), so a and b must be the two parallel sides. If your shape has no parallel sides at all, split it into two triangles and add their areas instead.
Can I compute the area if I only know all four side lengths but not the height?
Yes, but you need to recover the height h first. Given a, b, c, d (legs c and d), set x = (a² + d² − b² − c²) / (2 · (a − b)) — a standard derivation from Bretschneider — and then h = √(c² − x²). This widget asks for h directly because in most real problems the height is already known (from a drawing or a tape measure). If you only have the four side lengths, you can also split the trapezoid into two triangles and apply Heron's formula to each.
What is the midsegment good for?
The midsegment m = (a + b) / 2 has two everyday uses. (1) Geometric: it connects the midpoints of the two legs, runs parallel to both bases and is exactly the average of the bases. (2) Practical: a trapezoid's area equals midsegment × height, A = m × h — so estimating the area of an irregular room as "average width × length" is really this formula. Knowing m lets you skip computing two bases separately and reason about the trapezoid as if it were a rectangle of width m.
Does it matter which of the two parallel sides I label as "top" vs "bottom"?
Not at all for area or midsegment — both formulas are symmetric in a and b ((a + b)/2 and a + b). The "top" / "bottom" labels are just visual convention (people usually draw the shorter parallel side on top), but the calculator does not enforce or check the order. Likewise, the "left" and "right" leg labels are only there to match your sketch — perimeter and classification treat c and d symmetrically, so swapping them does not change the result.
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