The concept of area finds considerable use in our day to day life. For example, we have to consider the area of the top of the table while buying glass or mica for it. Similarly, the farmer has to consider the area of his field while estimating about the crop yield and so on. Now, the question arises what ‘area’ is?

In fact, the area of a figure can be defined as the surface enclosed by the figure or the extent of the surface of the figure. Like every other physical quantity, we need a unit of area also, for its measurement. The area of a square of side 1m is taken as SI unit of area, which is one square metre, and it is abbreviated as 1 m2. To measure areas, we often use the units cm², mm², km², etc. Also knowing that 100 cm = 1m, we have
104 cm² = 1m²
and 1 km² = 106 m², 1 m² = 10–6 km²

Now, let us see, how the areas of different types of figures are measured.