I thought I knew how to do this one, but apparently I'm doing it wrong, so...Help? All angles in the figure below are right angles. What is the area of the figure?

Question

anonymous · Answer

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jim_thompson5910 · Answer

The key is to break the figure into manageable pieces. So split the figure into 3 rectangles. 


The first rectangle (the left most rectangle) is 5 x 2. So its area is 10 square units


The middle rectangle is 3 x 2. This means that the area of the middle rectangle is 6 square units

Note: the length is 3 units since 9-(2+4) = 3 and the height is 2 units since 5-3 = 2


The right most rectangle is 4 x 5. So it's area is 20 square units.



Now add up the individual areas to get: 10+20+6 = 36 square units


So the area of the entire figure is 36 square units

anonymous · Answer

Oh, I see! It looks like I was breaking it up in the wrong way (and most likely messing up the numbers in the process), so thank you!

unklerhaukus · Answer

Construct a big rectangle = 9 x 5  = 45 (square units)

Find the missing side length   2 + L + 4 = 9 
L=3

Construct a small square = 3 x 3 = 9 (square units)

The total area of the original shape is 
the big rectangle minus the small square.

45 - 9 = 36 (square units)

anonymous · Answer

Thank you for your help, too!