A rectangular garden is 12 feet long and 9 feet wide. What is its area?

Question

Sometimes word problems describe a shape instead of giving a diagram. What’s the best way to find the area of a rectangular field if all you have are the written dimensions?

Answer 1

Step 1: Identify the shape.

The word “rectangular” tells us it’s a rectangle.

Step 2: Use the area formula for rectangles:

Area = length × width

Area = 12 × 9 = 108 square feet

✅ Final Answer: 108 ft²

📌 Tip: Always label your units and double-check that you’re using the correct formula for the shape described!

🧠 Trick: If there’s no picture, draw your own! Visualizing the shape makes a big difference.

Answer 2

rectangle area = length x width =

12 ft x 9 ft = 108 ft^2

= 4 yd x 3 yd = 12 square yards

108/9 = 12 yd^2

9 ft^2 = 1 yd^2

more succinct, more concise to say 12 ft by 9 ft = 12 yd^2

or you could go metric and do the metric equivalent

1 inch = by definition 2.54 centimeters

1 foot = 12 inches = 12x2.54 cm = 30.48 cm

12 feet = 12x30.48 = 365.76 cm

9 feet = 9x30.48 = 274.32 cm

12 ft x 9 ft = 365.76 x 274.32 cm = 100,335.28 square centimeters

1 m = 100 cm

1 m^2 = 10,000 cm^2

365.76 cm = 3.6576 m

274.32 cm = 2.7432 m

3.6576 x 2.7432 =10.03528 m^2

= about 10 square meters = the rectangle's area rounded to nearest square meter

12 square yards = about 10 square meters