Area is the amount of space that a flat, 2D object takes up.
Area is measured in square units, like square feet or square meters.
What is the area of this shape? 👇
Just count the number of squares it covers. That's the area. 👍
So what's the area of the blue rectangle?
It's 12 square units.
There's another way to figure out the area.
Multiply the width times height to get the area!
The width is 3, and the length is 2.
Let's multiply these:
3 × 2 = 6
The area is of the green rectangle is 6 square units.
Imagine you have a playroom with an area of 6.
You need to cover it with rubber mats.
How many rubber mats do you need to buy?
Knowing the number 6 doesn't help. 🙈
We need units of area, like square feet, to know exactly how big an area really is!
A unit of area tells how much space a flat shape takes up.
Remember, what you learned about units of length? Units of area are closely related to that.
There are different types of units of area:
We use small units of area for small spaces, and big units of area for big spaces.
Square millimeter is used for tiny objects like a fingernail.
We usually write it in shorter way like this: mm²
Square inch and square centimeter can be used for measuring small surfaces like papers, pictures, or drawings.
Square inch is usually written as in². Square centimeter is often written as cm².
Square feet, square yard, and square meter are used for bigger spaces like areas of rooms, houses, gardens, and fields.
Here are shorter ways of writing these units of area:
square feet = ft²
square yard = yd²
square meter = m²
Square miles and square kilometers are used for really large areas of land. Hectares and acres are also used, but you'll learn about them in later grades.
The abbreviation for square miles is mi². For square kilometers, the abbreviation is km².
Islands and countries are measured in square miles and square kilometers.
You can convert, or turn, any unit of area into any other unit using their conversion factor!
Tip: You don't have to memorize these 👇. 😅 You can always look up these 'conversions' on Google.
1 cm² = 100 mm²
1 m² = 10,000 cm²
1 km² = 1,000,000 m²
1 in² = 6.45 cm²
1 ft² = 144 in²
1 yd² = 9 ft²
1 m² = about 10.9 ft²
1 mi² = about 2.6 km²
It's important to use the right unit when measuring an area.
Let's say you were asked to find the area of this house.
Is it right to use square millimeters to measure it?
❎ No! The number will be too big!
You would get something like 800,000 mm²! 🤯
What about square meters (m²)?
Yes!
Square meters is a good unit for measuring the area of a house. 😃
✅ You can also use square feet (ft²). 😃
Now, will it be right to use square miles to measure the area of a piece of paper?
❎ No... The number you'll get will be too small.
It will have lots of decimal places. Just look at like this: 0.000868 m². 😌
✅ It's best to use the smaller units like square centimeters (cm²) or square inches (in²) for measuring paper.
We write units of area by adding a small 2 'superscript' after the unit of length.
Take a look:
Which is bigger?
4 square inches or 4 square meters?
We know that a square meter is bigger than a square inch.
So...
✅ 4 square meters is more than 4 square inches.
4 m² > 4 in²
Which of these two areas is smaller? 👇
50 square feet or 50 square miles?
We know that a square foot is smaller than a square mile.
So...
✅ 50 square feet is less than 50 square miles.
50 ft² < 50 mi²
Great job!
Now, try the practice to master units of area. 😃 You'll learn more and remember for longer.