A playground has the shape of a rectangle,

Solution:

It is given that the playground is in the shape of a rectangle with two semicircles on its smaller sides.

Length of the rectangular portion is $36 \mathrm{~m}$ and its width is $24.5 \mathrm{~m}$ as shown in the figure below.

Thus, the area of the playground will be the sum of the area of a rectangle and the areas of the two semicircles with equal diameter $24.5 \mathrm{~m}$.

Now, area of rectangle with length $36 \mathrm{~m}$ and width $24.5 \mathrm{~m}$ :

Area of rectangle $=$ length $\times$ width

$=36 \mathrm{~m} \times 24.5 \mathrm{~m}$

$=882 \mathrm{~m}^{2}$

Radius of the semicircle $=\mathrm{r}=\frac{\text { diameter }}{2}=\frac{24.5}{2}=12.25 \mathrm{~m}$

$\therefore$ Area of the semicircle $=\frac{1}{2} \pi \mathrm{r}^{2}$

$=\frac{1}{2} \times \frac{22}{7} \times(12.25)^{2}$

$=235.8 \mathrm{~m}^{2}$

$\therefore$ Area of the complete playground $=$ area of the rectangular ground $+2 \times$ area of a semicircle

$=882+2 \times 235.8$

$=1353.6 \mathrm{~m}^{2}$