Difference between Area and Perimeter

Area vs Perimeter

Area is one mathematical concept that most of us are aware of as it is used in daily life situations such as when trying to find out the effective space inside a room or a house. This is a concept that has great significance for all of us, and whether or not we have math as our subject in our graduation, all of us know how to calculate the area of a field, circle, or a polygon. However, there is another related concept in math called perimeter of a figure that also is very important in certain situations. Those who are in junior classes can easily tell the difference between area and perimeter but for others, it might be very difficult. This article takes a closer look at these important math concepts to enable readers apply either when needed.

Area is a concept that comes into play when you are getting flooring of a room changed or when you are going for painting of a room. Let us see how useful this concept is in these circumstances. Suppose you wish to get tiles installed inside your living room, and the length and breadth of the floor is 20 feet and 15 feet respectively. To calculate the area over which you need to install tiles, you need to find the product of these two figures. In this case it is calculated as follows.

Area = 20×15 = 300 square feet

Thus, if the tiles you have finalized are 2×2 feet

You obviously require 300/4 = 75 tiles to cover the floor of your room.

Now, let us see how perimeter calculation becomes important when you are trying to make a fence around your field that is rectangular in shape. If the field is 20×15 feet in size (imaginary), the perimeter is 2x (20 +15) = 70 feet. Thus, you require 70 feet of fencing material to complete the work.