The area of a region R in the plane, whose boundary is the curve $C$, may be computed using line integrals with the formula
$$\text { area of } R=\int_{C} x d y=-\int_{C} y d x$$
Let $R$ be the rectangle with vertices $(0,0),(a, 0),(0, b),$ and $(a, b),$ and let $C$ be the boundary of $R$ oriented counterclockwise. Use the formula $A=\int_{C} x d y$ to verify that the area of the rectangle is $a b$.