Ted has found a great summer job—he even gets to start earning money before summer begins! Ted's been hired to maintain his neighborhood's community pool, and he has to make sure that the pool is full of clean, chlorinated water and ready for swimmers by Memorial Day.

Before the town closed the pool for the winter, they drained the water from it. The guy who had Ted's job last year left behind some business cards, along with a list of tasks to be done to prepare the pool for summer. First, Ted will need to contact the folks at Pool Water, Inc., to schedule delivery of a tank of water that's already clean, chlorinated, and ready to go.

After a few minutes on the phone with Pool Water, Inc., Ted realizes that these guys are very particular about their water delivery routes. They want to know exactly how much space is in Ted's pool so that they don't load too much water onto the truck but still have enough to complete their route. They act as though Ted should know this information already, but he can't find any notes about the amount of water the pool holds.

Luckily, Ted is pretty good at determining area. Ted figures that if he can tell Pool Water, Inc., the exact area of the pool as well as its depth, the water delivery team will be able to figure out the amount of water to bring. There's a problem, though. This is the shape of Ted's pool.

What problem do you think Ted is having finding the area of the pool?

In this lesson, you'll find out how to calculate the area of unusual shapes like Ted's pool. You may not ever have a job filling pools, but area is one of the most common measurements that ordinary people need to figure out in their day-to-day activities.