Simon says that to find the area of a trapezoid, you can multiply the height by the top base and the height by the bottom base. then add the two products together and divide the sun by 2. is simon correct? explain your answer.

He is correct
basically you have
h times base1+h times bsae 2 all divided by 2
that equals
(hb1+hb2)/2
if we undistribute h using distributive property which is ab+ac=a(b+c)
(h)(b1+b2)/2

if you split the trapezoid in half with a horizontal line that passes through the halfway point of the height and take those two shapes and put them side by side and cut the triangles off the ends and add them, you will see why this is true

the reason is becuase you can get to the area formula from that is height times (b1+b2)/2