Discovering the area of Kites!
Use this interactive to discover the formula for kites and understand why it is what it is!
Use sliders a and b to change the length of the diagonals of the kite.
1. What happens to the side lengths when you change the length of the diagonals?
Use the sliders to rotate triangle ACE.
2. What shape does the triangle make with the newly transformed triangle?
Use the sliders to rotate triangle DCE.
3. What do you see now with the two original triangles and the newly transformed triangles?
4. Write any thoughts down you have that might help you find the area of the original kite.
Use the sliders to rotate the remaining triangles, ABE and DBE.
5. What shape have you constructed?
6. How would you find the area of this figure? (the combined yellow and blue figure you just constructed).
7. Write down what you notice about the area of this figure and what you think the area of your original kite is.
8. Build a formula to find the area of the original kite.
9. Write down if you think this will work for any kite! Share your thoughts with a partner.