Areas of common shapes

In construction, calculating the area of a gable end of a building is important when determining the number of bricks and mortar to order. This chapter deals with finding areas of common shapes. In engineering it is often important to be able to calculate simple areas of various shapes. The areas of similar shapes are proportional to the squares of corresponding linear dimensions. The chapter aims to calculate areas of quadrilaterals and circles. It shows that areas of similar shapes are proportional to the squares of the corresponding linear dimensions. There are thus a large number of situations in engineering where determining area is important. In everyday life it’s important to be able to measure area to, say, lay a carpet, or to order sufficient paint for a decorating job or to order sufficient bricks for a new wall.