Calculate and compare the area of rectangles

In a nutshell

Knowing the length and width of a rectangle will enable you to work out the area. The area can be measured in different units.

1	Measure the lengths of the rectangle.
2	Multiply the length by the width.

This procedure is the same as working out the area using the following formula.

A=l \times w

The area of a shape can be measured in different units such as $cm^2$ and $m^2$ .

Find the area of the rectangle.

The length of the rectangle is $2cm$ and the width is $1cm$ . Use the formula to work out the area.

$Area = l \times w \\Area = 2 \times 1 \\\underline{Area = 2cm^2}$

Find the area of the rectangle.

	$3m$
$2m$

The length of the rectangle is $3m$ and the width is $2m$ . Use the formula to work out the area.

$Area = l \times w \\Area = 3 \times 2 \\\underline{Area = 6m^2}$

The rectangle in example $2$ is much larger than the rectangle in example $1$ , because it's measured in metres.

You can work out the area of a shape by counting the number of squares inside the shape.

Find the area of the rectangle by counting the squares.

First count the number of squares in the rectangle.

The total number of squares is $6$ .

Find the total area of the shape if each square is $1m^2$ .

The total area of the rectangle is $\underline{6m^2}$ .