Math Is Fun Forum

Crissi

Guest

I do not understand perimeter and area. Can you help me?

I have lots of trouble with perimeter and area at school,and it is getting harder. Do you have any tips? Thank you very much. Also,I have a hard time remembering facts like what pi equals and it is getting on my nerves. Thank you for helping me.

MathsIsFun

Administrator

Registered: 2005-01-21

Posts: 7,711

Re: I do not understand perimeter and area. Can you help me?

For "perimeter" you could think: how long would a piece of string be to go around the edge of the circle (or square, or whatever shape).

For area, you could think how many brush strokes you would need to paint inside the circle (or square, etc).

To help you remember π, have a look at this

We also have a page on perimeters and areas here

Is any of that a help?

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"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

mathsyperson

Moderator

Registered: 2005-06-22

Posts: 4,900

Re: I do not understand perimeter and area. Can you help me?

Perimeter is the length of the border of a shape. You add up the lengths of all the sides to get the perimeter.

Area is the... area inside a shape. There are various different methods of working it out depending on what the shape is.

Pi is roughly 3.14. That's probably the most accurate value you'll need, although it wouldn't hurt to use 3.142.
A rough value that's easy to remember is 22 ÷ 7, and a much better value that's slightly harder to remember is 355 ÷ 113.

Edit: MathsIsFun got there first. Oh well. I gave some pi values, so the post wasn't completely useless.

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Why did the vector cross the road?
It wanted to be normal.

VR Hawks

Member

Registered: 2005-11-26

Posts: 401

Re: I do not understand perimeter and area. Can you help me?

Perimeter = the total lengths of a shape (rectangle, square, etc.)

Area = The space inside the shape

Pi = 3.1416...

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Name :: Vincent Raider Hawks
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