Area Calculation Tool

Here is a handy little tool you can use to

find the area of common shapes.

Triangle
Area = b h
b = base
h = vertical
height

Square
Area = a2
a = length of side

Rectangle
Area = w h
w = width
h = height

Parallelogram
Area = b h
b = base
h = vertical height

Trapezoid (US)
Trapezium (UK)
Area = (a+b) h
h = vertical height

Circle
Area = r2
Circumference=2r
r = radius

Ellipse
Area = ab

Sector
Area = r2
r = radius
= angle in radians

Volume Formulas
Note: "ab" means "a" multiplied
by "b". "a2" means "a squared",
which is the same as "a" times "a".
"b3" means "b cubed", which is the
same as "b" times "b" times "b".
Be careful!! Units count. Use the
same units for all measurements.
Examples

Units
Volume is measured in "cubic" units. The volume of a
figure is the number of cubes required to fill it
completely, like blocks in a box.
Volume is measured in "cubic" units. The volume of a
figure is the number of cubes required to fill it
completely, like blocks in a box.

Volume of a cube = side times side times side.

Since each side of a square is the same, it can
simply be the length of one side cubed.
If a square has one side of 4 inches, the volume
would be 4 inches times 4 inches times 4 inches,
or 64 cubic inches. (Cubic inches can also be
written in3.)

NOT CORRECT .... 4 times 1 times 3 = 12

CORRECT.... 4 inches is the same as 1/3 feet.
Volume is 1/3 feet times 1 foot times 3 feet = 1
cubic foot (or 1 cu. ft., or 1 ft3).

Be sure to use the same units for all

measurements. You cannot multiply feet times
inches times yards, it doesn't make a perfectly
cubed measurement.
The volume of a rectangular prism is the length on
the side times the width times the height. If the
width is 4 inches, the length is 1 foot and the
height is 3 feet, what is the volume?

cube = a 3

rectangular prism = a b c

irregular prism = b h

cylinder = b h = pi r 2 h

pyramid = (1/3) b h

cone = (1/3) b h = 1/3 pi r 2 h

sphere = (4/3) pi r 3

ellipsoid = (4/3) pi r1 r2 r3

The Distance Formula (page 1 of 2)

The Distance Formula is a variant of the Pythagorean Theorem that you used back in geometry.
Here's how we get from the one to the other:

Suppose you're given the two points
(2, 1) and (1, 5), and they want you
to find out how far apart they are. The
points look like this:

You can draw in the lines that

form a right-angled triangle,
using these points as two of the
corners:


It's easy to find the lengths of
the horizontal and vertical sides
of the right triangle: just
subtract the x-values and the yvalues:

Then use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the length of the third side
(which is the hypotenuse of the right triangle):
c2 = a2 + b2
...so: Copyright
Elizabeth Stapel 1999-2009 All Rights Reserved

This format always holds true. Given two points, you can always plot them,
draw the right triangle, and then find the length of the hypotenuse.
The length of the hypotenuse is the distance between the two points.
Since this format always works, it can be turned into a formula:

Distance Formula: Given the two points (x1, y1)and (x2, y2), the
distance between these points is given by the formula:

Don't let the subscripts scare you.

They only indicate that there is a "first" point and a "second" point;
that is, that you have two points.
Whichever one you call "first" or "second" is up to you.
The distance will be the same, regardless.

Find the distance between the points (2, 3) and (4, 4).
I just plug the coordinates into the Distance Formula:

Then the distance is sqrt(53), or about 7.28, rounded to two decimal places.

Distance
Formula
In this lesson,
the distance between two points whose
coordinates are known will be found.
A general formula for this will be developed and
used.
Suppose it is desired to calculate the distance d from
the point
(1, 2) to the point (3, -2) shown on the grid below.

We notice that the segment connecting these points is the

hypotenuse of a right triangle and use the Pythagorean Theorem.
The sides can be measured by counting the grids or by
subtracting the coordinates.
The vertical side of this triangle has length 4 which can be seen
by subtracting the second coordinates 2 (-2) = 4 The horizontal
side has length 2 which can be seen by subtracting the first
coordinates 1 3 = - 2 which we change to + 2 because length,
.
or distance, is positive.
Therefor
e
Using the Pythagorean
Theorem we
. We can summarize
thishave
as follows:

The Distance Formula:

We can generalize the method used above. The
distance between any two points
is given by

. This is known as the distance formula.

Let's practice:
i. What is the distance between the points
(5, 6) and ( 12, 40) ?
We apply the distance formula:

the distance from the point (1, 2) to the point (3, y) is

,what is the value of y?
We apply the distance formula:
Squaring both sides of the final equation gives us
We solve this by factoring:
which gives us two possible answers for y:
y = 0 and y = 4. Consequently there are two possible points
which are located at the required distance from our given point
(1, 2). They are (3, 0) and (3, 4).

Examples

What is the distance between (2, 7) and (4, 6)?

What is your answer?

If the distance from (x, 3) to (4, 7) is

What is your answer?

, what is the value of x?