# Three Rectangles as a Triangle +-- {.image} [[ThreeRectanglesasaTriangle.png:pic]] > These three overlapping rectangles are congruent, each with area $4$. The black dots mark the midpoints of the short sides. What total area is covered by this design? =-- ## Solution by [[Area of a Rectangle]] and [[Triangle]] +-- {.image} [[ThreeRectanglesasaTriangleLabelled.png:pic]] =-- With the points labelled as above, $A$ is the midpoint of the short side of a rectangle and $C$ is the midpoint of the long side. Therefore, triangle $A B C$ has area one eighth of the area of the yellow rectangle. The overlapping regions comprise six of these triangles, so have area $3$. The total area is then $3 \times 4 - 3 = 9$.