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Areas of Composite Shapes

Find the areas of combined shapes made up of one or more simple polygons and circles

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This is level 5; Real life composite area questions from photographs.

Photograph1These paving slabs are roughly in the shape of trapesia with parallel sides of lengths 45cm and 65cm. The parallel sides are 51cm apart. From these measurements what is the area of one slab in square centimetres?

cm² Correct Wrong

Photograph4The letter 'T' in this sign is made up of two rectangles. The width of both rectangles is 12cm. The length of the top rectangle is 98cm while the length of the other is 1.5 metres. What is the area of the 'T' in square centimetres?

cm² Correct Wrong

Photograph2The stained glass window shown here is in the shape of a large rectangle with a semi-circle on top. If the dimensions of the rectangle are 1.2m x 3.5m find the window area in square metres to three significant figures.

Correct Wrong

Photograph3This taxi sign is 2.1 metres wide and 39cm tall. Assuming the ends are perfect semi-circles find the area in square metres to three significant figures.

Correct Wrong

Photograph5This arrow can be thought of as two touching parallelograms (the arrow head) joined to an irregular pentagon. What is the area of the pentagon if the total arrow area is 1000cm². The top and bottom edges of the arrow are 12cm in length and are 40cm apart. Give your answer in square centimetres.

cm² Correct Wrong

Photograph6This ornate box is in the shape of a regular hexagon. The length of each edge is nine and a half centimetres. The distance across the box from the middle of one edge to the middle of the opposite edge is 17cm. What is the area (to two decimal places) of the base of the box in square centimetres?

cm² Correct Wrong

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This is Areas of Composite Shapes level 5. You can also try:
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 6
Missing lengths Oblongs Triangles Circles

Instructions

Try your best to answer the questions above. Type your answers into the boxes provided leaving no spaces. As you work through the exercise regularly click the "check" button. If you have any wrong answers, do your best to do corrections but if there is anything you don't understand, please ask your teacher for help.

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Description of Levels

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Level 1 - A reminder of the area formulas for basic shapes

Level 2 - Using letters to show how the areas of composite shapes are calculated

Level 3 - Composite shapes made up of rectangles

Level 4 - Composite shapes made up of quadrilaterals, triangles and circles

Level 5 - Real life composite area questions from photographs

Level 6 - Some puzzling composite area questions designed to challenge

Area Maze - You will love these puzzles which challenge you to find the measurement missing from composite shapes.

Exam Style questions are in the style of GCSE or IB/A-level exam paper questions and worked solutions are available for Transum subscribers.

Answers to this exercise are available lower down this page when you are logged in to your Transum account. If you don’t yet have a Transum subscription one can be very quickly set up if you are a teacher, tutor or parent.

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Basic Area Formulae

Area Formulae

 

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