A rectangle has length 8 and width 3. What is its area?

A rectangle has length 8 and width 3. What is its area?

• A. 20
• B. 24
• C. 28
• D. 32

Answer: (B)

Area is found by multiplying length by width. With a length of 8 and a width of 3, multiply 8 × 3 to get 24. This represents the number of unit squares that fit inside the rectangle—8 across and 3 down gives 24 total. The other numbers don’t come from using both dimensions together in a multiplication, so they don’t describe the space inside the rectangle. The area is 24 square units.

Area is found by multiplying length by width. With a length of 8 and a width of 3, multiply 8 × 3 to get 24. This represents the number of unit squares that fit inside the rectangle—8 across and 3 down gives 24 total. The other numbers don’t come from using both dimensions together in a multiplication, so they don’t describe the space inside the rectangle. The area is 24 square units.