Area units - Examples, Exercises and Solutions

$\text{cm}^2$ (square centimeter), $m^2$ (square meter), $\text{km}^2$ (square kilometer).

These units are different, but they are related:

$1\text{km}^2=1,000,000\text{m}^2$

$1\text{m}^2=10,000\text{cm}^2$

Understanding the relationship between these units is key, but there's no need to memorize it—we can quickly calculate it when needed.

Let's say we want to calculate how many $\text{cm}^2$ are in $1\text{m}^2$. We’ll draw a square whose sides each measure $1$ meter:

To calculate the area of the square, we need to multiply the length of one side by the other (this is a well-known formula). In our case:

The area of the square $=1\text{m}\times1\text{m}$.

The result is $1$ m² or, writing it another way:

$A=1\text{m}^2$