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In the real world it tells us the size of pieces of paper, computer screens, rooms in houses,
baseball fields, towns, cities, countries, and so on. Knowing the area can be very
important. Think of getting a new carpet fitted in a room in your home. Knowing the area
of the room will help make sure that the carpet you buy is big enough without having too
much left over.
Calculating Area
Area is measured in squares (or square units).
We can count the squares or we can take the length and width and use multiplication. The rectangle above has an area of
15 square units.
We could use small squares to measure large areas. The only problem with this is that we would end up having to use very
big numbers. For example, a field might be measured at 5,000,000,000 square millimeters when 5,000 square meters
would be a much easier size to say, write, and visualize.
You will probably hear more units for measuring area; square inches, square feet, square yards, square miles, acres,
hectares are all units used for measuring area.
Area = 9 mm x 4 mm = 36 mm2
Area = Length x Width
Area = 7 cm x 6 cm = 42 cm2
Area = 8 m x 2 m = 16 m2
Area = 7 km x 5 km = 35 km2
Area of a Square
The length and width of a square are the same so we just need to multiply the length by the length.
Area = 6 cm x 6 cm = 36 cm2
Area of a Circle
The area of a circle = r2
where r is the radius of the circle and is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.
(pronounced "pie" and often written "Pi") is an infinite decimal with a common approximation of 3.14159. You can find
out more about Pi here
Example of calculating the area of a circle
Area = r2
Area = 3.14159 x (4 cm)2
Area = 3.14159 x 16 cm2
Area = 50.27 cm2
Answer rounded to 2 decimal places
Assuming we know that the circumference of a circle is equal to 2r we can add dimensions to the "rectangle" as shown
below. Using the area of a rectangle area formula, area = width x height we can see how our circle, re-configured as a
rectangle, can be shown to have an area that approximates to r x r or r2
Circle Sectors Rearranged
Note: In the examples below the units of measurement are not shown and answers and the value of (Pi) have been
rounded to the nearest hundredth.
Total area = 18 + 54 = 72
The example above illustrates a common requirement when working with compound shapes - finding dimensions that are
not shown. When tutoring your children, give help, when needed, to find these "missing" dimensions. There is another
example below.
Width? 12 - 7 - 2 = 3
Height? 8 - 6 = 2
area = 18 + 24 = 42
area = 54 - 12 = 42