In the diagram, the area of rectangle EFGH is \(1/5\) of the area of unit square ABCD. What is the area of quadrilateral AFCH in square units?
+9519 So we know that a unit square is just a 1 by 1 square, so the area of a unit square is 1.
Since rectangle EFGH has 1/5 of the area of the unit square, the area of EFGH is 1/5.
For simplicity, area will be denoted by [] below. (For example, the sentence above translates to [EFGH] = 1/5.)
\([CGF] = \dfrac12 [BCGF]\) (imagine the rectangle BCGF is a piece of sandwich and you want to cut it in halves.)
Similarly, \([AEH] = \dfrac12 [ADHE] \).
Then, we do some algebra.
\(\quad [AFCH]\\ = [CGF] + [EFGH] + [AEH]\\ = [EFGH] + \dfrac12 [BCGF] + \dfrac12 [ADHE]\\ = \dfrac15 + \dfrac12 \left([BCGF] + [ADHE]\right)\)
Then notice that [BCGF] + [ADHE] is just the remaining area when [EFGH] is taken away from the unit square, so that is 4/5.
\([AFCH] = \dfrac15 + \dfrac12 \cdot \dfrac45 = \text{(you do the remaining calculation)}\)
