What is Area of A Rectangle - Formula, Examples and Units of Rectangle

We are all aware that a rectangle is a 2-dimensional polygon with four sides, four angles, and four corners, whose opposite sides are equal and parallel to each other. All angles of a rectangle are 90 degrees, which means they are right angles (find out more about types of angles).

Some real-life examples of rectangular figures are doors, computer screens, rulers, and books.

HOW TO FIND THE AREA OF A RECTANGLE

There are two methods to find the area of a rectangle. Let’s explore that:

Area of Rectangle by Square Method

Usually, the easiest way to find the area of any quadrilateral is by making small squares that could make up an entire quadrilateral and then counting the number of squares inside it. But this is quite a tedious and long method.

FORMULA

Area of Rectangle = Number of Square Units Forming the Rectangle

The area of a rectangle is calculated by counting the number of squares of dimension 1 x 1 sq. units that fit inside the given rectangle. To make this clear, let us consider a rectangle of unknown measurements. However, the number of squares inside the rectangle is counted as 20. This means that the area of the rectangle is 20 square units.

Area of Rectangle by Conventional Method

Technically, the area of a rectangle is the product of the breadth and length, expressed in square units. The definition of a rectangle states that the region covered by a rectangle in a 2-dimensional plane constitutes the area of a rectangle.

There are two parameters to a rectangle:

• Length (L)
• Width (W)

The length of a rectangle is the longest side, and the width is regarded as the shortest side. In many cases, the width is also referred to as the breadth of a rectangle (b).

FORMULA

Area of rectangle = Length x Width = Length x Breadth
A = L x W,

where A is the area,
L is the length,
W is the width or breadth.

A SMALL TIP TO REMEMBER: When you are finding out the area of a rectangle, make sure that you are multiplying the measurements that are in the same units of measurement. In case they are in different units, convert them to similar units and then proceed with the multiplication.

You May Also Want to Know About - Triangles and How to Calculate Area of Triangle.

UNIT OF A RECTANGLE

The area of a rectangle is usually measured in square units like square meters, square feet, square inches, and so on. However, when it comes to larger shapes such as fields or cities, then the area is measured in square kilometers, hectare, or even acre.

3 SIMPLE STEPS TO FOLLOW TO FIND THE AREA OF A RECTANGLE

Remember these 3 steps when finding the area of a rectangle:

• Write down the measurements of the length and breadth (or width) from the given question.
• Multiply length and breadth (or width) values.
• Now you get the product to be the area of the rectangle. Express this in terms of square units.