Skip to content
Your progress

Checking your sign-in…

Who's learning?

Each profile keeps its own read lessons, badges, streak, and practice scores on this device.

Lesson 4 of 9

Tiling a rectangle

Show on a big screen

5 min

Text size

A slate is a writing board. This one has length 7 cm and breadth 6 cm. Draw 1 cm squares across all of the slate.

A slate with length 7 cm and breadth 6 cm.
Step 1 of 4
  1. A slate with length 7 cm and breadth 6 cm.
  2. Rule it into 1 cm squares.
  3. 6 rows, 7 squares in each row.
  4. 6 × 7 = 42 unit squares.

The rule

Cover a rectangle with unit squares, as tiles cover a floor. Here a unit square is 1 cm by 1 cm. The squares line up in rows and columns. Rows go across. Columns go down. The slate has 6 rows of 7 squares.

Count row by row: 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42. Each row adds 7 more squares. So the total is 6 × 7. Multiplying is a fast way to count equal rows.

Area = length × breadth = 7 cm × 6 cm = 42 cm²

Length is the longer side, 7 cm. Breadth is the shorter side, 6 cm. Not 42 cm, and not just "42".

Tap every square in the lab. Then compare with length × breadth.

Loading lab…

Try the lab to finish this lesson.