Question

4. A compact disc has a diameter of 11.8 cm. What is the surface area of the disc in square centimeters? In square meters? [Area of a circle = (π)(radius) 2 ]

Answer 1

The surface area is 109.3 square centimeters or 0.01093 square meters. The area formula requires that we use the radius of the disc. We can find the radius by diving the diameter by 2, so radius = 11.8/2 or 5.9 cm. We can use 3.14 as an approximation for π. The surface area is 3.14 * (5.9*5.9). Since the diameter is given in cm, the surface area units are in square centimeters. To convert to meters, divide any measurement in centimeters by 100, but we need to convert to "square" meters, so we need to divide our square centimeters by 100 * 100, or by 10,000. Dividing 109.3 by 10,000 results in 0.01093 square "meters".