Area
| Area | |
|---|---|
| Dimension | L2 |
| SI Unit | m2 |
| Imperial/US Unit(s) | yd2, ft2, in2 |
| Unit conversions | |
| 1 m2 in ... | ... is equal to ... |
| SI units | 1×106 mm2 1×10-6 km2 |
| Imperial/US unit(s) | 1.19599 yd2 10.76391 ft2 1550.003 in2 |
Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a two-dimensional figure or shape, or planar lamina, in the plane. Surface area is its analog on the two-dimensional surface of a three-dimensional object. Area can be understood as the amount of material with a given thickness that would be necessary to fashion a model of the shape, or the amount of paint necessary to cover the surface with a single coat. It is the two-dimensional analog of the length of a curve (a one-dimensional concept) or the volume of a solid (a three-dimensional concept).
I want to convert: using
| Metric | Conversion |
|---|---|
| Square kilometre [km2] | |
| Hectare [ha] | |
| Are [a] | |
| Square metre [m2] | |
| Square decimetre [dm2] | |
| Square centimetre [cm2] | |
| Square millimetre [mm2] | |
| Square micrometre [µm2] | |
| Square nanometre [nm2] |
| British/Imperial | Conversion |
|---|---|
| Square mile [mi2] | |
| Homestead | |
| Acre | |
| Rood | |
| Square rod [rd2] | |
| Square | |
| Square yard [yd2] | |
| Square foot [ft2] | |
| Square inch [in2] |
| Other | Conversion |
|---|---|
| Metric dunam | |
| Cypriot dunam | |
| Iraqi dunam | |
| Greek stremma | |
| Football pitch |
The area of a shape can be measured by comparing the shape to squares of a fixed size. In the International System of Units (SI), the standard unit of area is the square metre (written as m2), which is the area of a square whose sides are one metre long. A shape with an area of three square metres would have the same area as three such squares. In mathematics, the unit square is defined to have area one, and the area of any other shape or surface is a dimensionless real number.
There are several well-known formulas for the areas of simple shapes such as triangles, rectangles, and circles. Using these formulas, the area of any polygon can be found by dividing the polygon into triangles. For shapes with curved boundary, calculus is usually required to compute the area. Indeed, the problem of determining the area of plane figures was a major motivation for the historical development of calculus.
Area plays an important role in modern mathematics. In addition to its obvious importance in geometry and calculus, area is related to the definition of determinants in linear algebra, and is a basic property of surfaces in differential geometry. In analysis, the area of a subset of the plane is defined using Lebesgue measure, though not every subset is measurable. In general, area in higher mathematics is seen as a special case of volume for two-dimensional regions.
Every unit of length has a corresponding unit of area, namely the area of a square with the given side length. Thus areas can be measured in square metres (m2), square centimetres (cm2), square millimetres (mm2), square kilometres (km2), square feet (ft2), square yards (yd2), square miles (mi2), and so forth. Algebraically, these units can be thought of as the squares of the corresponding length units.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Area", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.