How to Calculate Area
Area measures the amount of two-dimensional space inside a flat shape. It is used constantly in everyday life when laying carpet, painting a wall, buying land, or planning a garden. This area calculator supports seven common shapes, including rectangles, circles, triangles, trapezoids, and ellipses, and converts the result between square feet, square meters, square yards, and acres.
Common Area Formulas
The area of a rectangle is length times width, while a square is simply the side length squared. The area of a circle is pi times the radius squared. For a triangle, the area is one half of the base times the height. A trapezoid uses one half of the sum of the two parallel sides times the height, and an ellipse uses pi times its two semi-axes multiplied together.
Why Units Matter
When you measure lengths in feet, the resulting area is in square feet; when you measure in meters, the result is in square meters. Converting between these units is not as simple as dividing by a single number because area scales with the square of the length conversion. This calculator handles the conversion for you, so you can enter dimensions in feet and instantly see the area in square meters or acres.
Everyday Applications
Area calculations help you estimate how much flooring, sod, or paint you need for a project. Knowing the area of a room lets you avoid buying too much material and wasting money. Landscapers use area to plan lawns, and farmers use acres to describe field sizes.
For measuring the interior space of rooms and homes, try our square footage calculator, or use the tile calculator to estimate the number of tiles you need for a floor or wall.