The area of a parallelogram with base 26 cm and height 18 cm is:

Correct — A. Area of a parallelogram = base × height, where the height is the perpendicular distance to that base.

base = 26 cm, height = 18 cm
Area = 26 × 18
= 468 cm² → option (a)

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  932 cm² is not a product 26 and 18 can make by any route. It sits four short of 936 and catches a candidate matching the shape of a number instead of computing one.
• (c)
  936 cm² is 2 × 468 — the value you reach if you think base × height gives half the figure and double it. A parallelogram already equals two congruent triangles, so nothing is owed.
• (d)
  234 cm² is ½ × 26 × 18, the triangle formula. The halving belongs to the triangle, not to the parallelogram built on the same base and height.

The area of a parallelogram is base × height, and the height is the perpendicular distance between the chosen base and the side parallel to it — never the slant side.

Cut a parallelogram along either diagonal and you get two congruent triangles, each of area ½ × base × height. That is why the triangle carries the ½ and the parallelogram does not.

SSC uses an item like this as a speed question: both lengths are already in centimetres, the height is already perpendicular, and nothing has to be extracted before the multiplication.

Key facts

• Area of a parallelogram = base × height, with the height perpendicular to that base.
• Area of a triangle = ½ × base × height, exactly half a parallelogram on the same base and height.
• 26 × 18 = 468, and the unit of an area in centimetres is cm².

Common traps

• Halving out of habit, which is the triangle formula and gives 234 cm².
• Doubling the product instead, which gives 936 cm².
• Using a slant side in place of the perpendicular height when the stem supplies one.

No directly related past PYQ was found.