To find the area of this rectangle, count the number of square units in one row and then count the number of rows needed to completely cover the figure.

The rectangle is broken into four rows and six columns of equally sized squares.

There are 6 square units (units2) in a row and 4 square units (units2) in a column. The area of the figure is 24 square units (units2).

The area of any plane figure (figure that is a flat surface) is measured in square units. Even when the area is not a rectangle, we can use square units and parts of square units to measure the area.

Example

The triangle is broken into equally sized square units.

Even though there are only 6 whole square units in this triangle, the other 6 square units are obtained my combining partial square units. From this, you can see that the area of a shape that is not a rectangle is also measured in square units.

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