You are making a dragonfly kite. You want to cover the non-shaded area of the wings with shiny nylon. The dimensions of one pair of wings are shown. Decompose the figure into simple shapes. How many square meters of nylon will you need to cover the non-shaded area of one pair of wings?

Answer 1

To decompose the figure into simple shapes, we can divide each wing into a rectangle and two triangles.

The dimensions of the rectangle are:
Width = 2 meters
Length = 0.8 meters

The dimensions of each triangle are:
Base = 0.8 meters
Height = 0.4 meters

The area of the rectangle is:
Area = Width x Length
Area = 2m x 0.8m
Area = 1.6 square meters

The area of each triangle is:
Area = 0.5 x Base x Height
Area = 0.5 x 0.8m x 0.4m
Area = 0.16 square meters (for one triangle)
Total for two triangles = 0.16 x 2 = 0.32 square meters

Total area of one pair of wings = Area of rectangle + Area of two triangles
Total area = 1.6 + 0.32
Total area = 1.92 square meters

You will need 1.92 square meters of shiny nylon to cover the non-shaded area of one pair of wings.