Hi my name is Jessica i have a question i have to find the area of a pentagon ABCDE whose vertices are A (-2,-5), B (-2,2),C(2,4), D(5,2) and E(4,-2) its a 10th grade level question so it would be nice if u could answer it for me

 
Hi Jessica. Here's how to solve it. It helps if you draw it on graph paper first.
  1. Divide the pentagon into triangles by drawing lines between vertices until you have three triangles inside.
  2. Use the distance formula to find the lengths of each external line of the pentagon as well as the two internal lines you just drew to make the triangles.
  3. Use Heron's formula to find the area of each of the three triangles.
  4. Add them up. That's your total area.

You can use our search page to find information on the Distance Formula and Heron's Formula. We've written several web pages that describe this, but they are probably also in your own text book.

Hope this helps,
Stephen La Rocque>