AREA

1. What is area?

Area is the number of square units required to cover a surface.

2. Name the following shapes and write their area formulas.

Geometric Shape Name of Shape Area Formula

l
w

ah

hb

h
b

r
3. You can determine the area of a shape in two different ways:

(a) You can add all the squares inside the shape to get an approximate area answer.
or
(b) You can use the correct area formula for a given shape.

Example: (a) Estimate the area of the figure in square units.

The above shape can be thought of as a rectangle and a triangle.

The rectangle contains 35 squares.
The triangle contains 6 complete squares and 8 part squares. If you count each partial square as half
a square, then the total number of squares in the triangle will be approximately equal to:

Therefore, the triangle has

approximately 10 squares.
complete squares partial squares

Therefore, the total area of the shape is 35 + 10 = 45 squares.

rectangle triangle

(b) Use an appropriate formula to determine the area of the above shape:

Method 1: Find the area of the rectangle and the triangle and add the areas together.

Area of Rectangle is l  w Area of triangle is

Arearectangle = 7  5 Areatriangle =
= 35 square units = 10 square units

Therefore, the total area is 35 + 10 = 45 square units

 Method 2: Use the area formula for a trapezoid.

Areatrapezoid = where a is the length of top of the trapezoid

b is the length of bottom of the trapezoid
and h is the height of the trapezoid.

In this example a = 7 squares, b = 11 squares and h = 5 squares.

Areatrapezoid =
Substitute the numbers for the appropriate letters
=
Use BEDMAS to calculate the area.
=

= 45 square units.

4 What are the common units used to measure area in the ...
(a) metric system? (b) imperial system?

Questions:

1. Find the area of the following shapes using the correct formula.
7m
(a) (b)
5 cm

9 cm
1. Find the area of the following shapes using the correct formula.

(c) (d)

9m
10 ft

6 ft

7 in
(e) (f)
6 cm 8 in

8 cm 10 in

(f) (h)
3.8 mm
6 in 6.2 mm
1. Find the area of the following shapes using the correct formula.

(i)
13 cm

12 cm

2. Determine the approximate area of the following shapes by counting the squares. (Each
partial square counts as have a square).

(a)

(b)

Answers:

(a) 24 square units (b) Approx. 25 square units