How to Calculate the Area of a Piece of Land

Calculating the area of a piece of land is an important part of math class, but it's also useful in real life: Land area is needed for a building project, parceling out land ownership for purchase and determining the property line. There is a simple calculation to determine the area of a square or rectangular piece of land, and a slight modification when the land is not cleanly square or rectangular.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil
• Paper
• Calculator
• Piece of land
• Width measurements of the land
• Height measurements of the land
• Additional triangular measurements that make up the land, if it is not square or rectangular

Instructions

Calculating Land Area

1. Measure and record the width and height of the land. If the land is not a clean square or rectangle, measure the largest square or rectangular lengths possible within the boundary of the land.

2. Divide the excess land, beyond the rectangular or square measurement, into triangles, and record the height and the base of the triangles. Try to measure the largest triangles possible, within the boundary of the land, to reduce the amount of area calculations.

3. Multiply the width by the height of the square piece of land to get the area of the square. Record this number.

4. For the area of the triangles, multiply the base by .5 by the height of each triangle. Record all of the triangle areas.

5. Add the area of the square or rectangular land and the area of the triangle or triangles. The total will equal the total area of the piece of land.

Tips & Warnings

• The formula for a triangle's area is: Area = Base x .5 x Height. The formula for a square or rectangle's area is: Area = Length x Width.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish