Inches and feet are part of the imperial system of measurement, which is used in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and other places where English is spoken. In contrast, the metric system is used by most people who live outside the English-speaking world. For example, Japan uses metric units exclusively.
Here are some conversions to put things into perspective:
- 1 inch equals 2.54 centimeters (cm).
- 1 centimeter = 0.393701 inch
- 1 foot = 12 inches
Now, a square inch, on the other hand, is a unit of area, equal to the area of a square with sides measuring 1 inch. So, if a square’s sides are 2 inches, then we say the surface of the square is four square inches.
In other terms, “squared” means multiplying a number by itself. So, 2 inches times 2 inches is 4 square inches.
That being said, a lot of people in forums, and threads are wondering about the difference between square inches and inches squared, so let’s look a little bit more into it.
Square Inches vs. Inches Squared
When we have an area 3 inches wide by 4 inches tall, it’s 12 square inches. This is a measurement of area, indicated by the word “square” and the little ² sign. Whereas saying 12 inches squared is a common mistake people make when referring to an area, it basically means that we’re squaring a number.
For instance, it’s either 12 inches for length measurement, or 12 square inches if we’re calculating an area.
Is there a difference between square inches and inches squared?
There is a difference between square inches and inches squared. The former refers to how large an area is, and the latter refers to how many inches a square occupies in 3D space.
Is square inches more than inches?
Inches and square inches are used to measure different things. For example, inches are used to measure the height or length of objects, whereas square inches are used to measure the area of a surface.
Square inches are calculated by multiplying the length (in inch) with the width (in inch). The unit is written in this way “square inches”, “square in”.