An area model draws a fraction of a square. Split the square into equal columns and rows, and a rectangle W columns wide and H rows tall has area W × H.

With the square split into 2 columns and 3 rows, a 1-by-1 rectangle is 1/2 × 1/3 = 1/6 of the square. Read the same picture backwards to solve division: fix the area and one side, and the missing side is the quotient.