Square meter
A square meter, represented by the symbol m², is the area within a square whose sides measure one meter. It is the base unit of area in the International System of Units.
If this unit is preceded by a prefix of the International System, a multiple or submultiple of it is created. However, when presented squared, the difference of the order of magnitude rises when compared with the linear units of the same prefix. For example, a kilometer is a thousand times the length of a meter, but a square kilometer is a million times the area of a square meter.
Equivalence in the SI
The square meter can be used with all the prefixes of the International System.
| Multiplication | Name | Symbol | Multiplication | Name | Symbol | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | square meter (centiary) | m2 | 100 | square meter (centiary) | m2 | |
| 102 | square decameter (area) | dam2 | 10−2 | square decimeter | dm2 | |
| 104 | square hectometer (hectarea) | hm2 | 10−4 | square centimeter | cm2 | |
| 106 | square kilometer | km2 | 10−6 | square millimeter | mm2 | |
| 1012 | square meter | Mm2 | 10−12 | square mic | μm2 | |
| 1018 | square gigameter | Gm2 | 10−18 | square meter | nm2 | |
| 1024 | square meter | Tm2 | 10−24 | square meter | pm2 | |
| 1030 | square petameter | Pm2 | 10−30 | square femtometer | fm2 | |
| 1036 | square meter | Em2 | 10−36 | square atometer | am2 | |
| 1042 | Square zettameter | Zm2 | 10−42 | Square zeptometer | zm2 | |
| 1048 | square yottameter | Ym2 | 10−48 | square meter | ym2 |
Equivalences in other units
- 0.000247105381467117 acres (ac)
- 1,1959900463011 square yards (yd2)
- 10,76391041671 square feet (ft2)
- 1550,00310000062 square inches (in2)
Conversion
| Area | Expressed in | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sq in | sq ft | sq yd | m2 | sq chain | ac | sq mi | |
| 1 sq in | 1 | 0.006 944 | 0.000 771 6 | 0.000 645 2 | 0.000 001 594 | 0.000 000 159 4 | 0.000 000 249 1 |
| 1 sq ft | 144 | 1 | 0.111 1 | 0.092 90 | 0.000 229 6 | 0.000 022 96 | 0.000 000 035 87 |
| 1 sq yd | 1 296 | 9 | 1 | 0.836 1 | 0.002 066 | 0.000 206 6 | 0.000 000 322 8 |
| 1 m2 | 1 550 | 10.76 | 1.196 | 1 | 0.002 471 | 0.000 247 1 | 0.000 000 386 1 |
| 1 sq chain | 627 264 | 4 356 | 484 | 404.7 | 1 | 0.1 | 0.000 115 625 |
| 1 ac | 6 272 640 | 43 560 | 4 840 | 4 047 | 10 | 1 | 0.00115625 |
| 1 sq mi | 4 014 489 600 | 27 878 400 | 3 097 600 | 2 589 988 | 6 400 | 640 | 1 |
Unicode characters
Unicode has several characters used to represent metric units of area, but these are to ensure compatibility with character codes used in East Asia and are not intended to be used in new documents.
- U+33A1 m2 M square
- U+33A2 km2 KM square
- U+3378 dm2 DM square
- U+33A0 cm2 CM square
- U+339F mm2 MM square