Area is the amount of space a flat shape or surface takes up.
How much space does this board take up? 🤔
👉 To figure that out, let's find the board's area!
Tip: Only two-dimensional objects have an area. Three-dimensional objects have volume.
The cover of a book is flat. The front of a closet door is flat. A paper is flat.
Let's find the area of a grid like this board
One way to find the area of a grid is to count all the squares in it.
How many squares are there?
That's right! There are 30 squares.
The area of the board is 30 square units. 😀
1 square is 1 square unit.
But counting is pretty slow. Let's learn a faster way.
To find the area of a grid like a rectangle or a square, just multiply the height times the width.
Height x Width = Area
Why does this work? 🤔
Because grids are just columns multiplied by some number of rows! 🤓
How many rows and columns does our grid have?
Now what happens when we multiply the number of rows (5) times the columns (6)?
5 x 6 = 30
We get the same answer from multiplying as we do from adding all of the squares! 😺
So remember:
Multiply the length and width of any rectangle or square to get its area.
Just like length, weight and time, area also has some units of measurement.
Units of area tell us how big or small an area actually is.
Imagine that this is the measurement of each square on the board.
The area of a square 1 cm wide, and 1 cm tall is 1 square centimeter.
Square centimeter is a unit of measurement for area. It's written as cm².
In the United States, people also sometimes use square inches as a unit of measurement. It's written as sq.in. or in².
👉 The area of a square 1 in wide, and 1 in tall is 1 square inch.
So, what's the area of our board?
We know that it's 30 square units.
If the area of each square is 1 cm² , then the area of the board is 30 cm².👍
What if we want to measure the area of larger spaces, like this field of grass?
What unit of measurement should we use? 🤔
😌 Square centimeter would be too small.
For larger spaces, the unit of measurement often used is square meter. It's written as m².
A square meter is the area taken up by a square with 1 m long sides. 👍
Now, let's measure the area of the yard.
👉 A grid can help us count the square units.
Instead of counting, let's multiply the columns by the rows.
5 x 9 = ?
What do we get? 45 square units!
So, the area of the yard is 45 m². 🎉
In the United States, people often use square feet instead of square meters!
1 square foot is the area of a 1 ft by 1 ft square. It's abbreviated as sq. ft. or ft².
Square feet are smaller than square meters.
1 m2 can fit a little over 10 ft².
Now, complete the practice. You'll learn more and remember for longer. 💪