So, I need to find the area of this shape. It's an irregular shape, and I don't know how to figure it out.

The shape looks like,
15
--------
/| |
25 / | | 20
/ | |
/ | |
/____|______|
15 15
I was told the answer was 450.
Though I don't know how to figure 450 out?

Ahh. The shape didn't show.

Basically, it's a rectangle with like a triangle on the side of it.
15 on the top,
25 on the side with the triangle point, 20 on the right side,
15 on the bottom, where the triangle is.
and 15 on the bottom of the rectangle

15

***********---------
*********/| |
********/ | | 20
*****25/ | |
******/ | |
*****/____|________|
*****15*******15

I'm guessing that it's a rectangle 15 across and 20 high, with a triangle on its left side, a right-angled triangle, 20 high and 15 at its base, with a hypotenuse of 25.

And you need the area.

The area of the rectangle is 15 * 20 = 300.

The area of the triangle is half the base times the perpendicular height =

(1/2) * 15 * 20 = 150.

And all that adds up to 450!

To find the area of an irregular shape, you can break it down into smaller, more manageable shapes and then sum up their individual areas.

In this case, you have an irregular shape that can be divided into four smaller shapes: a rectangle, two right triangles, and a trapezoid.

First, we can find the area of the rectangle. The rectangle has a length of 20 units and a width of 15 units. To find its area, simply multiply the length by the width: 20 * 15 = 300 square units.

Next, we can find the area of the two right triangles. Both triangles have a base of 15 units and a height of 25 units. To find the area of a triangle, multiply the base by the height and divide the result by 2: (15 * 25) / 2 = 375 / 2 = 187.5 square units. Since we have two triangles, the total area is 2 * 187.5 = 375 square units.

Finally, we can find the area of the trapezoid. The trapezoid has a height of 15 units and two parallel sides of lengths 15 units and 20 units. To find the area of a trapezoid, multiply the sum of the parallel sides by the height and divide the result by 2: ((15 + 20) * 15) / 2 = (35 * 15) / 2 = 525 / 2 = 262.5 square units.

Now, sum up the areas of all the smaller shapes:
300 (rectangle) + 375 (two triangles) + 262.5 (trapezoid) = 937.5 square units.

It seems the answer you were given (450) is incorrect. The correct area for the given irregular shape is 937.5 square units, not 450.