30/07/2020 What is Area?

What is Area?
Area is the size of a surface!

Example:

These shapes all have the same area of 9:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1 2
1 2 3
3 4
4 5 6
5 6
7 8 9
7 8 9

It helps to imagine how much paint would cover the shape.

Area of Simple Shapes

There are special formulas for certain shapes:

Example: What is the area of this rectangle?

The formula is:

Area = w × h
w = width
https://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/area.html 1/7
30/07/2020 What is Area?

h = height

The width is 5, and the height is 3, so we know w = 5 and h = 3:

Area = 5 × 3 = 15

Learn more at Area of Plane Shapes .

Area by Counting Squares

We can also put the shape on a grid and count the number of squares:

The rectangle has an area of 15

Example: When each square is 1 meter on a side, then the area is 15 m2 (15 square metres)

Square Meter vs Meter Square

The basic unit of area in the metric system is the square meter, which is a square that has 1
meter on each side:

1m

1 m2
1m

1 square meter

Be careful to say "square metres" not "metres squared":

https://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/area.html 2/7
30/07/2020 What is Area?

1m 3m

1 m2
1m

1 m2 vs 3 m × 3 m = 9 m2
1m

3m
1 m2
1m

3 "square m" A "3 m square"

There are also "square mm", "square cm" etc, learn more at Metric Area .

Approximate Area by Counting Squares

Sometimes the squares don't match the shape exactly, but we can get an "approximate"
answer.

O :

more than half a square counts as 1

less than half a square counts as 0

Like this:

https://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/area.html 3/7
30/07/2020 What is Area?

This pentagon has an area of approximately 17

O .

Example: Here the area marked "4" seems equal to about 1 whole square (also for "8"):

This circle has an area of approximately 14

B ( ) :

Example: The circle has a radius of 2.1 metres:

The formula is:

Area = π × r2

Where:

π = the number pi (3.1416...)

r = radius

https://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/area.html 4/7
30/07/2020 What is Area?

The radius is 2.1m, so:

Area = 3.1416... × (2.1m)2

= 3.1416... × (2.1m × 2.1m)

= 13.854... m2

So the circle has an area of 13.85 square metres (to 2 decimal places)

Area of Difficult Shapes

We can sometimes break a shape up into two or more simpler shapes:

Example: What is the area of this Shape?

Let's break the area into two parts:

Part A is a square:

Area of A = a2 = 20m × 20m = 400m2

Part B is a triangle. Viewed sideways it has a base of 20m and a height of 14m.

Area of B = ½b × h = ½ × 20m × 14m = 140m2

So the total area is:

Area = Area of A + Area of B

Area = 400m2 + 140m2

https://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/area.html 5/7
30/07/2020 What is Area?

Area = 540m2

Area by Adding Up Triangles

We can also break up a shape into triangles :

Then measure the base (b) and height (h) of each triangle:

Then calculate each area (using Area = ½b × h) and add them all up.

Area by Coordinates
When we know the coordinates of each corner point
we can use the Area of Irregular Polygons method.

There is an Area of a Polygon by Drawing Tool that

can help too.

https://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/area.html 6/7
30/07/2020 What is Area?

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5

Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10

Garden Area Activity

Copyright © 2017 MathsIsFun.com

https://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/area.html 7/7