Area of rectangular

Room A
ROOM B
Room C

The figures above show carpets used to cover the floors of 3

rooms . All the carpets have the same pattern.
a) Which room the largest ? Why ?
b) Which room is the smallest ? Why ?
You have just used the concept of area to compare the sizes of 3
rooms. The amount of surface that a two dimensional figure covers
is its area. The area of a region can be found by adding up all the
smaller shapes that cover the region completely. These small
shapes need not be squares. They can also be other polygons.
However, squares are the most suitable shapes for measuring
areas.

For example, the floor on the right is covered with 12 square tiles.
If the length of a square is 1 units,
Then, the area of a square = 1 units
= 1 unit x 1 unit
= 1 unit or 1 square unit
Therefore, the area of the floor = 12 units or 12 square units.
The area of a square of side 1 cm is 1 square centimeter and is
written as 1 cm
Other units of area are square milimetres (mm) , square metres
(m) and square kilometres (km)

To estimate the area of a region

Sometimes,
we do not need to know the exact area of a region. So we make an

estimation of the area. This is a quick way of getting an approximate value of

the area.

Activity
a) Trace

the shape of a leaf on a square grid paper

of 1 cm
b) Mark (
) in each space that fills up one
complete units square.
c) Then mark (
) in each space that occupies half
a unit square or more.
d) Count the number of (
).
e) if the area of each space that is half a unit
square or more can be counted
f) As 1 cm , estimate the area of the leaf

Example
Example

Estimate the sice of the island as shown beside.

Solution
Approximate length = 4 km
Approximate breadth = 3 km
Number of 1 km x 1 km squares (area = 1 km ) needed
to cover the island = 4 x 3
= 12
Estimated area = 12 x (1 km ) = 12km

To find the area of rectangle

The rectangle shown is made up of 8 small squares.
Each small square has an area of 1 units. Hence, the
area of the rectangles is 8 units.
Note that :
Number of squares in one row = 4 x 2
=8
If the number of squares in one row represent the
length and the number of rows represent the breadth,
then
Area of rectangles = length x
breadth

Example

Find the area of this Geography book cover which has the shape of a rectangle

Solution

Area of book cover = length x breadth

= 18.5 x 26
= 481 cm
Example

The area of a rectangular mural is 12 m and its length is 4

m. Find its Solution
Area = length x breadth
12 = 4 x breadth
Therefore, breadth =

To solve problems involving area

Pak

nasir has a piece of land I the shape of a rectangle with an

area of 4 480 m2. The land is 80 m long. Calculate the perimeter
of the land .

Solution
Length x breadth = 4 480 m2
80 x breadth = 4 480 m2
breadth =
=56 m
Perimeter of the land = 2 x (length + breadth)
= 2 x (80 + 56)
= 2 x 136
= 272 m

10
m

5.5 m

4m

2.5 m

agram shows the plan of two rooms with rectangular floors. The cost to til
15 per square metre. Calculate the cost required to tile the floor of both ro

on

rea of the rectangular floors

x 5.5) + (4 x 2.5)
m2
ost to tile the floors
65
75

Summary
1. The distance aroud the outer boundry of a shape is called the perimeter.
2. The amount of surface that a two dimensional figure covers is its area.

Area of rectangle
= length x breadth
= axb

Area of parallelogram
= base x height
=bxh


Area
of triangle
= x base x height

= xbxh

Area

of trapezium
= x (sum of parallel sides) x
height
= x (a + b) x h

concept mapping
Perimeter and area

Area

Perimeter
2-dimensional shapes

Perimeter of
rectangle

Height and
bases of
triangle,
parallelograms
and trapezium

Area of rectangles,
parallelograms and
trapezium

Area of combined
shapes