What are two different strategies to use to find the area of a figure?

Answer 1

Assuming that it's not some shape that can be described by a formula, then here are 2 ways of finding the area:

1. One way would be to copy the figure onto some graph paper, then count the squares that it covers. Partial squares could be estimated to the nearest 1/2 square, for example. Then use the scale that the graph paper was made to change squares to an actual area.
2. Another way would be to draw it onto some cardboard, then cut out the figure and weigh the shape. If you know how much a known amount of cardboard weighs.

For example, if a certain cardboard weighs 10 grams for a 10 cm by 10 cm (100 cm²) area. That is 0.1 gram/cm². Then you trace the shape onto the cardboard then cut it out, and weigh on a precision scale. If the shape weighs 3.6 grams (for example), then (3.6 gram)/(0.1 gram/cm²) = 36 cm²