The perimeter of a square is 48 cm. Find its area.

Answer

To solve the problem of finding the area of a square when its perimeter is given, we can follow these steps:

### Step 1: Understand the formula for the perimeter of a square.
The perimeter (P) of a square is calculated using the formula:
\[ P = 4 \times \text{side} \]

### Step 2: Set up the equation using the given perimeter.
We know from the problem that the perimeter of the square is 48 cm. Therefore, we can set up the equation:
\[ 48 = 4 \times \text{side} \]

### Step 3: Solve for the length of one side of the square.
To find the length of one side, we need to divide both sides of the equation by 4:
\[ \text{side} = \frac{48}{4} \]
\[ \text{side} = 12 \text{ cm} \]

### Step 4: Use the side length to find the area of the square.
The area (A) of a square is calculated using the formula:
\[ A = \text{side} \times \text{side} \]
Substituting the value of the side we found:
\[ A = 12 \times 12 \]

### Step 5: Calculate the area.
Now, we can perform the multiplication:
\[ A = 144 \text{ cm}^2 \]

### Final Answer:
The area of the square is \( 144 \text{ cm}^2 \).

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