How to calculate the area
To work out the area of a square or rectangle, multiply its height by its width.
If the height and width are in cm, the area is shown in cm².
If the height and width are in m, the area is shown in m².
A square with sides of 5 m has an area of 25 m², because 5 × 5 = 25.
Watch: How to work out area
Narrator: Are you alright? You're looking a bit confused.
Builder: Just trying to figure out how many tiles I'm going to need for this wall mate.
Narrator: Well I'm sure we can work it out. It helps if we use squares.
If this measures 1 unit, and this measures 1 unit, then that's 1 x 1 = 1, so we have 1 square.
Let's try another one.
If this measures 5 units, and this measures 2…
then that's 5 x 2 = 10, so we have 10 squares.
We can do that for any shape we want to measure, where all angles are right angles.
Your wall measures 6 units cross, and 4 units high.
So if we times 6 by 4, it will tell us how many squares we need.
6 x 4 = 24.
24 tiles.
Wow. That was quick!
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Teaching resources
Are you a teacher looking for more resources on how to work out an area? In this short animation, Ada introduces Zach and Kayla to the concept of area, and different ways to measure and calculate the area of rectangles, triangles and composite shapes.
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More on Area and volume
Find out more by working through a topic
- count2 of 5
- count3 of 5
- count4 of 5
