How would you find the value of x and y in a parallelogram?

Answer 1

That really depends on what parts of the parallelogram 'x' and 'y' are.

Are they a pair of opposite sides ? A pair of adjacent sides ? One side and one diagonal ?

A diagonal and an angle ? A side and an altitude ? A different procedure is going to apply

to each of these cases.

And another thing . . . The method you use also depends on what information you're given.

You must apply the formulas you know that relate the information you have to the pieces

that are labeled 'x' and 'y'. There's no one general approach that's the right one to use in

every possible situation.

In fact . . . here's something that'll blow your mind . . . nobody cares what the values of

'x' and 'y' are in the parallelogram, and that's not why you're studying geometry!

The reason you're studying geometry is to develop your ability to pick the best way

to find them. Once you do that, the actual values don't matter. The only reason

anybody every asks you for the answer in school is because that's the only way

they're able to tell whether or not you worked out a way to find them.