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### Unit 10: Lesson 6

Decompose figures to find area

# Area: FAQ

## What is area?

Area is the amount of space a two-dimensional, or a flat, shape covers.

## What's the distributive property and how does it help us find area?

The distributive property tells us that we can break a multiplication problem into two smaller problems and then add the results together. This can be really helpful when we're trying to find the area of a shape that's made up of two or more smaller shapes.

## How do you find the area of a rectangle?

If a shape is made up of unit squares, we can count the number of squares to find the area. So, for example, if a shape is made up of 8 unit squares, the area is 8 square units.
To find the area of a rectangle, we multiply the length by the width. So, for example, if a rectangle has a length of 6 inches and a width of 4 inches, the area is 6, times, 4, equals, 24 square inches.

## How can we find the missing side length of a rectangle if we know the area and the other side length?

We can use the formula for the area of a rectangle to solve for the missing side length. For example, if we know that the area of a rectangle is 24 square inches and the width is 6 inches, we can set up the equation 6, times, x, equals, 24 and solve for x to find that the length is 4 inches.

## Why do we need to learn about area?

Area is a really important concept in math, and it's used in a lot of real-world situations. For example, if you're painting a room, you need to know the area of the walls in order to figure out how much paint to buy.

## Want to join the conversation?

• I like this to be honest it can be a little hard sometimes but for the most part when you actually understand it, it's easier.