Square metre
The square meter (American English) or square metre (Commonwealth English) (symbol: m²) is the SI derived unit of area. 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 1/299,792,458 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.
SI prefixes applied to the square metre
The square meter may be used with all SI prefixes used with the meter.
| Multiple | Name | Symbol | Multiple | Name | Symbol | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | square meter | |||||
| 102 | square decameter | dam² | 10–2 | square decimeter | dm² | |
| 104 | square hectometer | 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 |
Conversions
A square meter is equal to:
- 0.000 001 square kilometer (km²)
- 10,000 square centimeters (cm²)
- 0.000 1 hectares
- 0.01 ares
- 0.000 247 105 381 acres
- 1.195 990 square yards
- 10.763 911 square feet
- 1,550.003 1 square inches
See also
References
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