Year 8 Interactive Maths - Second Edition

Pronumerals

For example, the formula for the area of a rectangle is:

Area of a rectangle = length × width

If A represents the area of the rectangle, l represents the length of the rectangle and w represents the width of the rectangle, then we can write the formula for the area of the rectangle as follows:

A = l × w

In this formula, the letters A, l and w are called pronumerals.

Note:

A pronumeral is a letter used in a problem to represent the measurement of a quantity.  We often choose the first letter of the name of a quantity.

For example, the measurement of the base of a triangle will be represented by b.

Key Terms

pronumeral