To calculate the area of a rectangular lawn, what operation must be performed?

To calculate the area of a rectangular lawn, the appropriate operation is multiplication. The area of a rectangle is determined by multiplying its length by its width. This is because the area essentially represents the total number of square units that can fit within the boundaries of the rectangle.

When length and width are measured, envision each dimension as defining a set of units along the respective axes. By multiplying these two dimensions together, you are counting how many unit squares fit within the rectangle. For example, if the length of the lawn is 10 feet and the width is 5 feet, the area would be 10 feet multiplied by 5 feet, giving you an area of 50 square feet.

The other operations described would not yield the correct area. Adding would only give a total of the linear measurements without accounting for the full dimensional space they enclose. Subtracting would not yield a meaningful metric for area and dividing would result in a ratio rather than a measure of area. Thus, multiplying the length by the width is the essential and correct operation to perform for finding the area of a rectangular lawn.