A square flower bed has a side of 14 m. A rectangular flower bed measures 20 m by 10 m. Which bed covers more ground, and by how much?

Area measures how much flat space a shape covers. The unit is a **square** of side 1 — so ${\text{cm}}^2$ (square centimetres), $m^2$ (square metres), etc. To measure the area of a rectangle visually, imagine covering it with 1-cm squares: count them. A rectangle 5 cm by 3 cm holds $5\times 3=15$ little squares, so its area is $15{\text{cm}}^2$. The general formula is the same idea: area of rectangle = $l\times b$.