Question

The base of the parallelogram, b, can be found by dividing the area by the height.



If the area of the parallelogram is represented by 6x2 + x + 3 and the height is 3x, which represents b, the length of the base?

2x + 3 +
2x + + x
2x + +
2x + +

Answer 1

b = (6x^2 + x + 3) / (3x).

Divide each term by 3x:
- 6x^2/(3x) = 2x
- x/(3x) = 1/3
- 3/(3x) = 1/x

So b = 2x + 1/3 + 1/x (with x ≠ 0). You can also write this as 2x + (x+3)/(3x).