SEARCH HOME
Math CentralQuandaries & Queries

search

Question from jane:

if a room is 4meters by 5meters, how many square meters are there?

Hi Jane,

Imagine that you want to tile the floor using tiles that are 1 metre by 1 metre. Each tile has an area of 1 square metre. You can put 5 tiles along the long wall and then 5 more tiles beside the first row and so on.

tiled floor

When you are done you have 4 rows of 5 tiles each for a total of 4 × 5 = 20 tiles and hence 20 square metres.

Penny

About Math Central
 

 


Math Central is supported by the University of Regina and The Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences.
Quandaries & Queries page Home page University of Regina PIMS