trapezoid

     

A trapezoi (in North America) or a trapezium (in Britain and elsewhere) is a quadrilateral, which is defined as a closed shape with four linear sides, that has one pair of parallel lines for sides. Some authors define it as a quadrilateral having exactly one pair of parallel sides, so as to exclude parallelograms, which otherwise would be regarded as a special type of trapezoid, but most mathematicians use the inclusive definition.

Trivia about trapezoid

  • Of a schizoid, rhizoid or trapezoid, the one you'll normally run across in geometry class
  • In geometry it's a quadrilateral with 2 parallel sides; in anatomy, it's the smallest wrist bone
  • (Kelly of the Clue Crew points out a four-sided shape on the monitor.) In geometry, I'm sure you've come across this shape: it's a plane figure with 2 parallel & 2 non-parallel sides
  • Seen here, its area equals half the sum of the parallel sides multiplied by the height
  • To get this quadrilateral's area, add the 2 parallel sides, divide by 2 & multiply by the height
  • This figure, a quadrilateral with just 1 pair of parallel sides, shares its name with a wrist bone