Composite Figures

Decomposition and pattern recognition in working with figures filled with curves, lines, and various shapes all mixed together lets your creative juices flow.

Expect to see and learn how to solve questions like this one:

The more tools you have for approaching, analyzing, and decomposing composite figures, the better:

• Using grids can help with estimating areas of uncommon shapes.
• Breaking an uncommon shape into more common shapes, finding the areas of those shapes, then adding those areas together can help determine the area of an uncommon shape.
• When composite figures have many pieces of similar sizes, solving for areas algebraically using a system of equations can be a good approach.