COMPUTING LENGTHS, AREAS AND VOLUMES One who would estimate bill of materials must know how to compute the length of lines, areas of figutes and volume of solids which may represent parts of a building for which quantities of materials ‘to be estimated. For example, areas of floors, walls, cellings, etc,, must first be computed and then ‘either multiplied or divided by certain factors to obtain the quantity of such materials as tiles, cement and regates, paint, etc Lines are measured in linear units like: millimeters, centimeters, meters, etc. The area of a face is given in square units such as. square milimeters, square centimeters, square meters, etc. the volume of a solid is expressed in cubic units like, cubic millimeters, cubic centimeters, cubic ate Following are formulas for computing the properties of selected plain and solid figures: SQUARE Area(A) =a" Diagonal (d) Example: Ifone side of the square is 5 meters, then A=5? or 85 =25 Square meters d= 5y or 5 x1.414=7.07 Meters RECTANGLE Area=WxL Diagonal (d) = vw? +? Example: In the rectangle shown, if W= 4 meters and L=6 meters, then A=4x6 = 24 Square meters a4? 46? = 16436 52 = 7.21 Meters RECTANGLE Aan