Square meter
The square meter is the SI-derived unit of area. It has a symbol m² (33A1 in Unicode[1]). It is defined as the area of a square whose sides measure exactly one meter. The square meter is derived from the SI base unit of the meter, which in turn is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in absolute vacuum during a time interval of [math]\displaystyle{ \frac{1}{299792458} }[/math] of a second.
Adding SI prefixes creates multiples and submultiples. However, as the unit is squared, the order of magnitude difference between units doubles from their comparable linear units. For example, a kilometer is one thousand times the length of a meter, but a square kilometer is one million times the area of a square meter since the unit of [math]\displaystyle{ km^2 }[/math] is defined the same way as [math]\displaystyle{ m^2 }[/math] with the only difference being that the sides of the squares measure 1 km each. Thus 1 [math]\displaystyle{ km^2 }[/math] has two sides each measuring 1000 meters which you multiply by each other to get the area of 1 000 000 [math]\displaystyle{ m^2 }[/math].
A "square meter" and "meter squared" both refer to the unit of [math]\displaystyle{ m^2 }[/math] since to square refers to raising to the power of 2.
For example, a square that is 2 meters long and 2 meters wide has 4 square meters of area.
[math]\displaystyle{ 2m*2m=4m^2 }[/math]
But a square that is 4 by 4 meters has 16 square meters of area.
[math]\displaystyle{ 4m*4m=16m^2 }[/math]
SI prefixes applied to the square meter
The square meter may be used with all SI prefixes used with the meter.
| Multiple | Name | Symbol | Multiple | Name | Symbol | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | square meter (centiare) | m² | 100 | square meter (centiare) | m² | |
| 102 | square decameter (are) | dam² | 10−2 | square decimeter | dm² | |
| 104 | square hectometer (hectare) | hm² | 10−4 | square centimeter | cm² | |
| 106 | square kilometer | km² | 10−6 | square millimeter | mm² | |
| 1012 | square megameter | Mm² | 10−12 | square micrometer | µm² | |
| 1018 | square gigameter | Gm² | 10−18 | square nanometer | nm² | |
| 1024 | square terameter | Tm² | 10−24 | square picometer | pm² | |
| 1030 | square petameter | Pm² | 10−30 | square femtometer | fm² | |
| 1036 | square exameter | Em² | 10−36 | square attometer | am² | |
| 1042 | square zettameter | Zm² | 10−42 | square zeptometer | zm² | |
| 1048 | square yottameter | Ym² | 10−48 | square yoctometer | ym² |
Conversions
A square meter is equal to:
- 0.000 001 square kilometer (km²)
- 10,000 square centimeters (cm²)
- 0.000 1 hectares (ha)
- 0.01 ares (a)
- 1 centiare (ca)
- 0.000 247 105 381 acres
- 1.195 990 square yards
- 10.763 911 square feet
- 1,550.003 1 square inches
Square Meter Media
Square Meter Unit Conversion Visual Aid
Related pages
Notes
- ↑ "Unicode Utilities: Character Properties". unicode.org.
Other websites
- BIPM (SI maintenance agency) Archived 2005-03-06 at the Wayback Machine (home page)
- BIPM brochure (SI reference)