Square metre

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 metre. The square metre is derived from the SI base unit of the metre, 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 kilometre is one thousand times the length of a metre, but a square kilometre is one million times the area of a square metre.

A "square metre" is not the same thing as a "metre square" [2] - although it is true that exactly 1 square metre is exactly 1 meter square. But that only works for the numbers 1 and 0; no others.

For example, a square that is 2 metres long and 2 metres wide has 4 square metres of area.

2m * 2m = 4m2

But a square that is 4 metres squared would have 4 metres on each side. This means it would have 16 square metres of area.

4m * 4m = 16m2

That is, (4m)2 is 4 meters squared, whereas 4m2 is 4 square meters.

SI prefixes applied to the square metre

The square metre may be used with all SI prefixes used with the metre.

MultipleNameSymbol MultipleNameSymbol
100 square metre (centiare) m² 100 square metre (centiare) m²
102square decametre (are)dam² 10−2square decimetredm²
104square hectometre (hectare)hm² 10−4square centimetrecm²
106square kilometrekm² 10−6square millimetremm²
1012square megametreMm² 10−12square micrometreµm²
1018square gigametreGm² 10−18square nanometrenm²
1024square terametreTm² 10−24square picometrepm²
1030square petametrePm² 10−30square femtometrefm²
1036square exametreEm² 10−36square attometream²
1042square zettametreZm² 10−42square zeptometrezm²
1048square yottametreYm² 10−48square yoctometreym²

Conversions

A square metre is equal to:

Notes
  1. "Unicode Utilities: Character Properties". unicode.org.
  2. mathforum.org Miles squared vs. square miles.

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