be fooled some of these are harder than they look! Remember, need to Don’t – you’ll take into account the units of measure, and on two of the segments, the previous markings on the left hand side that visible. aren’t This is good practice for the times when actually using a tape measure on the you’re job, especially when measuring long lengths. It takes concentration to read off you’re the correct measurement without misreading the position of the graduations on the tape. Write your answers in the boxes provided. When finished, check your you’ve answers in the Answers section at the back. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Area If you think of length as being one dimensional, that is, going in one direction only, then area is two dimensional, because it has length and width. have a look at the area of some common shapes. Let’s Squares and rectangles The area of any square or rectangle is simply its length times its width. For example, if a rectangle is 3 metres long and 2 metres wide, its area is: Length x width = 3 m x 2 m = 6 square metres (m2) What if you had a sheet of particle board measuring 3.6 m x 1.8 m? Its area is simply: Length x width = 3.6 m x 1.8 m = 6.48 m2 Triangles say you cut the sheet of particle board in half diagonally, forming two equal Let’s triangles. The area of each triangle is exactly half of the original rectangle. That is:
Don’t be fooled – some of these are harder than they look! Remember, you’ll need to take into account the units of measure, and on two of the segments, the previous markings on the left hand side that aren’t visible. This is good practice for the times when you’re actually using a tape measure on the job, especially when you’re measuring long lengths. It takes concentration to read off the correct measurement without misreading the position of the graduations on the tape. Write your answers in the boxes provided. When you’ve finished, check your answers in the Answers section at the back. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Area If you think of length as being one dimensional, that is, going in one direction only, then area is two dimensional, because it has length and width. Let’s have a look at the area of some common shapes. Squares and rectangles The area of any square or rectangle is simply its length times its width. For example, if a rectangle is 3 metres long and 2 metres wide, its area is: Length x width = 3 m x 2 m = 6 square metres (m2) What if you had a sheet of particle board measuring 3.6 m x 1.8 m? Its area is simply: Length x width = 3.6 m x 1.8 m = 6.48 m2 Triangles Let’s say you cut the sheet of particle board in half diagonally, forming two equal triangles. The area of each triangle is exactly half of the original rectangle. That is: