The area can be defined as the amount of space covered by a flat surface of a particular shape. It is measured in terms of the “number of square units”. The area of a polygon is the number of square units inside the polygon. We frequently use area in our daily life. For example, if we want to paint the walls of a room, we have to know the area to be painted so as to buy the adequate amount of paint. In this topic, we will discuss the area of rectangle and square.

The area of rectangle is the number of unit squares that can fit into a rectangle.

Definition

Area occupied by a rectangle within its boundary is called the area of the rectangle.

The plane figure shown in figure 61 is a rectangle. So, we can find area of this rectangle by counting the squares inside the rectangle.

There are 24 squares inside the rectangle. Therefore, we can say that the area of this rectangle is 24 square units. We can also find its area by multiplying number of units in its length by the number of units in its width.

As shown in figure 61, there are 6 squares in its length and 4 squares in its width. Thus, 6 units × 4 units = 40 square units.

In general, we can find the area of any rectangle by multiplying its length and its width.