How To Find The Area Of A Polygon

A polygon is any flat shape that has straight lines for sides. Some common polygons are squares, parallelograms, triangles and rectangles. The area of an object is the amount of square units that are needed to fill a shape. To find the area of a shape, you simple have to measure the shape and plug those measurements into a mathematic formula.

Finding the Area of a Square

Step 1

Make sure the shape is a true square by measuring all of the sides. If all of the sides are the same length, the shape is a square, not a rectangle.

Step 2

Measure the length of one side of the square.

Step 3

Multiply the length by itself. For example, if the length were 4 inches, multiply 4 by 4. The mathematical formula for a square is Area = Side².

Finding the Area of a Rectangle and Parallelogram

Step 1

Measure one of the smaller sides, also known as the base, of the rectangle.

Step 2

Measure one of the longer sides, also known as the height, of the rectangle.

Step 3

Multiply the two measurements together to get the area of the polygon. The mathematical formula for a rectangle or a parallelogram is Area=Base X Height.

Finding the Area of Triangles

Step 1

Measure the base of the triangle.

Step 2

Measure the longest side, also known as the height, of the triangle.

Step 3

Multiply the two measurements together to get the area of a quadrilateral, which is a triangle stacked upon itself.

Step 4

Divide the answer by 2 to get the area of a triangle. The mathematic formula for a triangle is Area=Base (x) Height 1/2.

TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read)

The area of a polygon is always a positive number.

Cite This Article

MLA

McKee, Alina. "How To Find The Area Of A Polygon" sciencing.com, https://www.sciencing.com/area-polygon-6543283/. 24 April 2017.

APA

McKee, Alina. (2017, April 24). How To Find The Area Of A Polygon. sciencing.com. Retrieved from https://www.sciencing.com/area-polygon-6543283/

Chicago

McKee, Alina. How To Find The Area Of A Polygon last modified August 30, 2022. https://www.sciencing.com/area-polygon-6543283/

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