7 Exploring measures
Exercise 7.1
1 This rectangle was made by putting two squares together.
6 cm
a What is the area of the rectangle?
b What is the area of one of the squares?
2 This square was made by putting two identical rectangles together.
9 cm
a What is the area of the square?
b What is the area of one of the rectangles?
3 Asok took two pieces of paper.
21 cm 21 cm
30 cm 30 cm
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7.1 Rectangles and triangles
He cut one piece of paper in half like this:
a What was the area of the piece of paper before it was cut?
b What is the area of one of the smaller pieces of paper Asok made?
He cut the other piece of paper in half like this:
c What is the area of one of the smaller pieces of paper Asok made?
4 Estimate the area of these triangles by counting the squares.
A B
D E
What knowledge are you using about squares to help you
decide if a square is half covered by a shape? What different
ways do you think a square can be cut into two equal pieces with
a straight line? Talk to a partner about your ideas.
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7 Exploring measures
5 Selena made this pattern by overlapping tissue paper triangles.
Below are the bottom three triangles, as they look on a centimetre
square grid.
a Draw and complete a table to show the area of each triangle
in the pattern.
b What would be the area of the 7th triangle?
c What would be the area of the 10th triangle?
d Look at the pattern of numbers in your table. Try to describe the
pattern of the areas of the triangles.
Can you think of a way to always predict what the area of the
next triangle will be?
Can you describe the link between the number
of each triangle and its area?
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7.1 Rectangles and triangles
Think like a mathematician
What is the area of each rectangle below?
Count squares to estimate the area of each triangle.
Describe what you notice about the area of the triangles from your estimates.
Draw more triangles on squared paper inside rectangles that are 8 cm by 4 cm.
Each triangle should be as wide and as tall as the rectangle.
Estimate the area of the triangles you draw by counting squares.
Describe what you find out.
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7 Exploring measures
Worked example 1
This rectangle has been cut in half to make two triangles.
What is the area of each blue triangle in this rectangle?
4m
8m
Work out the area of the whole rectangle. Multiply the width by the length to
The area of the rectangle is 32 cm2. find the area of a rectangle.
Divide the area in half. Each of the triangles is half of the
32 ÷ 2 = 16. rectangle.
Don’t forget to use units of area. Units of area include mm2, cm2, m2
The lengths are in metres so the area and km2.
will be m2.
Each triangle has an area of 16 m2.
6 These rectangles are cut in half diagonally to make two triangles.
For each diagram work out the area of the rectangle and the area of
one of the triangles.
a b
4 cm
3 cm
4 cm
5 cm
c d
2 cm
4 cm
6 cm
5 cm
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