Document literacy: Understanding diagrams
and charts
A floor plan
Knowing how to read measurements and how
to use them to make calculations is an important skill.
When you are shopping for a house, you may receive floor
plans of houses for sale, such as the one shown below. These
tell you the location, plus the length and width of all
the rooms in the house.
Often housing ads will also tell you the
area (or floor surface) covered by the house
or the size of the lot (the total area of
land on which the house is located). These are measured
in square feet. Knowing the square feet in
a house gives you a good idea of its size and allows you
to compare the sizes of different homes.
Once you move in, you’ll also need
to make other measurements. You may want to measure the
distance from one end of your lot to the other in order
to put up a fence. If you want to buy curtains, you’ll
have to measure the height and width of your windows. If
you decide to put carpet in a room, you’ll have to
calculate the square feet you’ll need.
In charts and diagrams using measurements
of length, abbreviations are often used. For foot or feet
you will see the abbreviation ft. or the symbol (').
For inches, in. or the symbol (") is used. The
common abbreviation for yard is yd. The measurement
for a room that is 15 feet and 6 inches wide by 11 feet
and 3 inches long, for example, might be written like this:
15'6" x 11'3". Usually the length (l) is
written first, followed by the width (w), and then,
if needed, the height (h): (l x w x
h).
To calculate the area (or floor space)
of a room, the measurement unit of a square foot is used.
To find the area of a room, multiply the length of the room
by its width. In the floor plan below, for example, the
living room is 20 feet by 18 feet. Its area is 360 square
feet.
