Sometimes shapes are made up of two or more rectangles. These shapes are known as compound or composite shapes. To find the area of a shape like this you need to divide it into rectangles.

When working out the surface area of a cuboid (box shape) you need to think that there are three pairs of opposite sides and each side of a pair will have the same area.

The area of a triangle equals half the base times the height.

Finding the total area of composite shapes by working out the area of rectangles and triangles within them.