How to Calculate the Area of a Shape

Video Transcript

"Let's take a look at how to calculate the area of a shape. So let's the, a basic shape to start with. We'll look at a rectangle. So if we have a rectangle that was 6 units by 4 units. If we want to calculate the area of that shape, we would the area of a rectangle = length X width. So let's call that the length; so it would be 6 X the width; we'll call that 4; so the area of this rectangle is 24. Now what that really means by the way is it means that, it means that when you show the six units along this way and the four units along that way, it actually means that inside this rectangle we have twenty four 6 by 4; we have twenty four boxes that are one unit by one unit in this rectangle and that's the area. If you had an area of an irregular shape like something like that; there's a couple of ways you can do it. Let's say it broke down into a triangle or rectangle and half a circle. You would actually calculate the area of the triangle, the area of the rectangle and the area of the half circle and then you add up those three spaces, those three areas and that would be the area of the irregular shape."