Orders of magnitude (area)

thumb|Image comparing various units: [[square mile (the entire yellow square), square kilometre, hectare and acre, as well as a soccer field and a Manhattan block.]]thumb|right|An area of one [[square kilometre consists of 100 hectares each containing 10,000 square metres.]]

This page is a progressive and labelled list of the SI area orders of magnitude, with certain examples appended to some list objects.

to square metres

{| class="wikitable"

|+List of orders of magnitude for area to square metres

!Factor (m²)

!Multiple

!Value

!Item

|-

|-

|

| 

|2.6 m²

|Planck area, <math>\frac{G \hbar}{c^3}</math>

|-

|

| 1 square quectometre

|-

|

|1 square rontometre

|-

|

|&nbsp;

|100 rm²

|1 shed

|-

|

|1 square yoctometre (ym²)

|&nbsp;1 ym²

|&nbsp;

|-

|

|&nbsp;

|100,000 ym²

|1 femtobarn

|-

|10⁻⁴²

|1 square zeptometre (zm²)

|&nbsp;1 zm²

|&nbsp;

|-

|10⁻³⁶

|1 square attometre (am²)

|&nbsp;1&nbsp;am²

|&nbsp;

|-

|10⁻³⁰

|1 square femtometre (fm²)

|&nbsp;1 fm²

|&nbsp;

|-

|10⁻²⁹

|&nbsp;

|66.52 fm²

| Thomson cross-section of the electron

|-

|10⁻²⁸

|&nbsp;

|100 fm²

|1 barn, roughly the cross-sectional area of a uranium nucleus

|-

|10⁻²⁴

|1 square picometre (pm²)

|&nbsp;1&nbsp;pm²

|&nbsp;

|-

|10⁻²⁰

|1 square angstrom (Ų)

|&nbsp;10,000&nbsp;pm²

|&nbsp;

|-

|rowspan=2|10⁻¹⁹

|

|100,000&nbsp;pm²

|Area of a lipid bilayer, per molecule

|-

|

|75,000–260,000&nbsp;pm²

|Surface area of the 20 standard amino acids

|-

|10⁻¹⁸

|1 square nanometre (nm²)

|&nbsp;1&nbsp;nm²

|&nbsp;

|-

|10⁻¹⁶

|

|100&nbsp;nm²

|Globular proteins: solvent-accessible surface area of a typical globular protein, having a typical molecular mass of ~35000 u (quite variable)<!-- 38 Angstroms^2 per amino acid (for globular proteins near 35000 u) * 35000 u/ 110 u per amino acid = 1.2e-16 m^2 -->

|-

|10⁻¹⁴

|

|17,000&nbsp;nm²

|Cross-sectional area of a nuclear pore complex in vertebrates<!-- diameter = 145e-9 m^2 => area = pi * (145e-9 / 2)^2 = 1.65e-14 m^2 -->

|-

|10⁻¹²

|1 square micrometre (μm²)

|6 μm²

|Surface area of an E. coli bacterium

|-

|10⁻¹⁰

|&nbsp;

|100 μm²

|Surface area of a red blood cell

|-

|rowspan=3|10⁻⁹

|&nbsp;

|6,000–110,000 μm²

|Range of common LCD screen pixel sizes

|-

|&nbsp;

|7,000 μm²

|Area of a dot printed using 300 dots per inch resolution

|-

|&nbsp;

|8,000 μm²

|Cross-sectional area of a straight human hair that is 100&nbsp;μm in diameter

|}

10⁻⁸ to 10⁻¹ square metres

{| class="wikitable"

|+List of orders of magnitude for areas 10⁻⁸ to 10⁻¹ square metres

!Factor (m²)

!Multiple

!Value

!Item

|-

|10⁻⁸

|&nbsp;

|55,000 μm²

|Size of a pixel on a typical modern computer display

|-

|10⁻⁷

|&nbsp;

|2-400,000 μm²

|Cross-sectional area of a mechanical pencil lead (0.5-0.7&nbsp;mm in diameter)

|-

|rowspan=2|10⁻⁶

|rowspan=2|1 square millimetre (mm²)

|1–2&nbsp;mm²

||Area of a human fovea

|-

|2&nbsp;mm²

||Area of the head of a pin

|-

|10⁻⁵

|&nbsp;

|30–50&nbsp;mm²

||Area of a 6–8&nbsp;mm hole punched in a piece of paper by a hole punch

|-

|rowspan=2|10⁻⁴

|rowspan=2|1 square centimetre (cm²)

|290&nbsp;mm²

|Area of one side of a U.S. penny

|-

|500&nbsp;mm²

||Area of a typical postage stamp

|-

|rowspan=2|10⁻³

|rowspan=2| &nbsp;

|1,100&nbsp;mm²

||Area of a human retina

|-

|4,600&nbsp;mm²

||Area of the face of a credit card<!-- width*height - (4-pi)(corner radius)^2 = (85.6*1e-3)*(53.98 * 1e-3) - (4-pi)*((3.18e-3)**2) = 4.61e-3 m^2 -->

|-

|rowspan=4|10⁻²

|rowspan=4| 1 square decimetre (dm²)

|10,000&nbsp;mm² || Index card (3 × 5 inches)

|-

|60,000&nbsp;mm² || American letter paper (11 × 8.5 inches, "A" size)

|-

|62,370&nbsp;mm² || International A4 paper (210 × 297&nbsp;mm)

|-

|92,903&nbsp;mm² || 1 square foot

|-

|rowspan=4|10⁻¹

|rowspan=4| &nbsp;

| 125,000&nbsp;mm² || International A3 paper (297 × 420&nbsp;mm)

|-

| 180,000&nbsp;mm² || Surface area of a basketball (diameter 24&nbsp;cm)

|-

|250,000&nbsp;mm² || International A2 paper (420 × 594&nbsp;mm)

|-

|500,000&nbsp;mm² || International A1 paper (594 × 841&nbsp;mm)

|}

10⁰ to 10⁷ square metres

{| class="wikitable"

|+List of orders of magnitude for areas 10⁰ to 10⁷ square metres.

!Factor (m²)

!Multiple

!Value

!Item

|-

|rowspan=3|10⁰

|rowspan=3| 1 square metre

|1&nbsp;m² || International A0 paper (841 × 1189&nbsp;mm)

|-

|1.73&nbsp;m² || A number commonly used as the average body surface area of a human

|-

|1–4&nbsp;m² || Area of the top of an office desk

|-

|rowspan=2|10¹

|rowspan=2|&nbsp;

|10–20&nbsp;m²

||A parking space

|-

|70&nbsp;m²

||Approximate surface area of a human lung

|-

|rowspan=7|10²

|rowspan=7|1 square decametre (dam²)

|100&nbsp;m²

||One are (a)

|-

|162&nbsp;m²

||Size of a volleyball court (18 × 9 metres)

|-

|202&nbsp;m²

||Floor area of a median suburban three-bedroom house in the US in 2010:

|-

|261&nbsp;m²

||Size of a tennis court

|-

|437&nbsp;m²

||Size of an NBA/WNBA/NCAA basketball court

|-

|845&nbsp;m²

||Wing area of Airbus A380, the largest commercial airliner

|-

|978&nbsp;m²

||Size of the primary mirror of the Extremely Large Telescope, the largest optical telescope in the world (under construction)

|-

|rowspan=5| 10³

|rowspan=5| 1 kilo square meter k(m²)

|1,000&nbsp;m² || Surface area of a modern stremma or dunam

|-

|1,250&nbsp;m² || Surface area of the water in an Olympic-size swimming pool

|-

|4,047&nbsp;m² || 1 acre

|-

|5,400&nbsp;m² || Size of an American football field

|-

|7,140&nbsp;m² || Size of a typical football (soccer) field

|-

|rowspan=4|10⁴

|rowspan=4| 1 square hectometre (hm²)

|10,000&nbsp;m² || 1 hectare (ha)

|-

|17,000&nbsp;m² || Approximate area of a cricket field (theoretical limits: 6,402&nbsp;m² to 21,273&nbsp;m²)

|-

|22,100&nbsp;m² || Area of a Manhattan city block

|-

|53,000&nbsp;m² || Base of the Great Pyramid of Giza

|-

| rowspan="5" |10⁵

| rowspan="5" | &nbsp;

|195,000&nbsp;m² || Irish National Botanic Gardens

|-

|490,000&nbsp;m² || Vatican City

|-

|600,000&nbsp;m² || Total floor area of the Pentagon<!-- 6.5e6 ft^2 * (0.3048 m/ft)^2 = 6.04e5 m^2 -->

|-

|659,611&nbsp;m²

|Total floor area of Surat Diamond Bourse (largest office building)

|-

|887,800&nbsp;m² || AvtoVAZ main assembly building, Tolyatti, Russia (largest building by footprint)

|-

|rowspan=4|10⁶

|rowspan=4| 1 mega square meter M(m²)

1 square kilometre (km²)

|1.76&nbsp;km² || New Century Global Center, Chengdu, China (largest building by total floor area)

|-

|2&nbsp;km² || Monaco (country ranked 192nd by area)

|-

|2.59&nbsp;km² || 1 square mile

|-

|2.9&nbsp;km² || City of London (not all of modern London)

|-

|rowspan=2|10⁷

|rowspan=2| &nbsp;

|59.5&nbsp;km² || Manhattan Island (land area)<!-- 22.96 mi^2 * (1.609 km/mi)^2 ~= 59.44 km^2 -->

|-

|61&nbsp;km² || San Marino

|}

10⁸ to 10¹⁴ square metres

{| class="wikitable"

!Factor (m²)

!Multiple

!Value

!Item

|-

| rowspan="4" |10⁸

| rowspan="4" | &nbsp;

|105&nbsp;km² || Paris (inner city only)

|-

|110&nbsp;km² || Walt Disney World

|-

|272&nbsp;km² || Taipei City

|-

|630&nbsp;km² || Toronto

|-

| rowspan="7" |10⁹

| rowspan="7" | 1 giga square meter G(m²)

|1,100&nbsp;km² || Hong Kong

|-

|1,290&nbsp;km² || Los Angeles, California, United States (city)

|-

|1,962&nbsp;km² || Jacksonville, Florida; largest city in the Continental US

|-

|2,188&nbsp;km² || Tokyo

|-

|3,130&nbsp;km²

|Average area of an American county

|-

|5,780&nbsp;km² || Administrative area of Bali

|-

|8,030&nbsp;km² || Community of Madrid, Spain

|-

| rowspan="4" |10¹⁰

| rowspan="4" | &nbsp;

|11,000&nbsp;km² || Jamaica

|-

|30,528&nbsp;km² || Belgium

|-

|68,870&nbsp;km² || Lake Victoria

|-

|84,000&nbsp;km² || Austria

|-

| rowspan="9" |10¹¹

| rowspan="9" | &nbsp;

|100,000&nbsp;km² || South Korea

|-

|167,996&nbsp;km² || Jiuquan in China

|-

|232,000&nbsp;km² || Total area covered by underwater search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (including both 2014-2017 and 2018 searches)

|-

|238,397&nbsp;km²

|Romania

|-

|301,338&nbsp;km² || Italy

|-

|357,000&nbsp;km² || Germany

|-

|377,900&nbsp;km² || Japan

|-

|510,000&nbsp;km² || Spain

|-

|780,000&nbsp;km² || Turkey

|-

| rowspan="8" |10¹²

| rowspan="8" | 1 tera square meter T(m²)

1 square megametre (million&nbsp;km²)

|1.0&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Egypt (country ranked 29th by area)

|-

|2&nbsp;million&nbsp;km²

| Mexico

|-

|3.10&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Sakha (Yakutia) Republic in Russia (largest subnational governing body)

|-

|3.28&nbsp;million&nbsp;km²

|India (country ranked 7th by area)

|-

|5&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Largest extent of the Roman Empire

|-

|7.74&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Australia (country ranked 6th by area)

|-

|8.5&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Brazil

|-

|9.5&nbsp;million&nbsp;km²

|China/ United States of America

|-

| rowspan="12" |10¹³

| rowspan="12" | &nbsp;

|10&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Canada (including water)

|-

|14&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Antarctica

|-

|14&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Arable land worldwide<!-- Calculation using 2010 FAO data: 1,380,515 * 1000 ha = 1.4e13 m^2 -->

|-Mynameisnoted

|16.6&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Surface area of Pluto

|-

|17&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Russia (country ranked 1st by area)

|-

|24&nbsp;million&nbsp;km²

|Largest extent of Mongol Empire

|-

|30&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Africa

|-

|35.5&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Largest extent of the British Empire

|-

|38&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Surface area of the Moon

|-

|44.6&nbsp;million&nbsp;km²

|Asia (largest continent by area)

|-

|70.5&nbsp;million&nbsp;km²

|Indian Ocean

|-

|85.1&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Atlantic Ocean

|-

|rowspan=5|10¹⁴

|rowspan=5| &nbsp;

|144&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Surface area of Mars

|-

|150&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Land area of Earth

|-

|168.7&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Pacific Ocean

|-

|360&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Water area of Earth

|-

|rowspan=2|10¹⁶

|rowspan=2| &nbsp;

|43,000&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Surface area of Saturn

|-

|61 000&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Surface area of Jupiter, the "surface" area of the spheroid (calculated from the mean radius as reported by NASA). The cross-sectional area of Jupiter, which is the same as the "circle" of Jupiter seen by an approaching spacecraft, is almost exactly one quarter the surface-area of the overall sphere, which in the case of Jupiter is approximately 1.535&nbsp;m².

|-

|rowspan=2|10¹⁷

|rowspan=2| &nbsp;

|2-600 000&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Surface area of the brown dwarf CT Chamaeleontis B.<!-- Surface area is uncertain because radius is uncertain: area = 4 * pi * r^2 using a range of r: r = (0.23 - 0.06) to (0.23 + 0.08) solar masses = 2-6e17 m^2 -->

|-

|460,000&nbsp;million&nbsp;km² || Area swept by the Moon's orbit of Earth

|-

|10¹⁸

|1 square gigametre (Gm²)

|6.1 trillion&nbsp;km² || Surface area of the Sun

|-

|10¹⁹

|&nbsp;

|30 trillion&nbsp;km² || Surface area of the star Vega

|-

|10²⁰

|&nbsp;

|&nbsp;100 trillion&nbsp;km²

|&nbsp;

|-

|10²¹

|1 zetta square meter Z(m²)

|1 000 trillion&nbsp;km²

|

|-

| rowspan="3" |10²²

| rowspan="3" | &nbsp;

|11,000 trillion&nbsp;km² || Area swept by Mercury's orbit around the Sun

|-

|37,000 trillion&nbsp;km² || Area swept by Venus' orbit around the Sun

|-

|71,000 trillion&nbsp;km² || Area swept by Earth's orbit around the Sun

|-

| rowspan="2" |10²³

| rowspan="2" | &nbsp;

|160,000 trillion&nbsp;km² || Area swept by Mars' orbit around the Sun

|-

|281,000 trillion&nbsp;km² || Surface area of a Dyson sphere with a radius of 1 AU

|-

| rowspan="3" |10²⁴

| rowspan="3" | 1 yotta square meter (m²)

1 square terametre (Tm²)

|1.9 quintillion&nbsp;km² || Area swept by Jupiter's orbit around the Sun

|-

|6.4 quintillion&nbsp;km² || Area swept by Saturn's orbit around the Sun

|-

|8.5 quintillion&nbsp;km² || Surface area of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse

|-

| rowspan="3" |10²⁵

| rowspan="3" | &nbsp;

|24 quintillion&nbsp;km² || Surface area of the hypergiant star VY Canis Majoris

|-

|26 quintillion&nbsp;km² || Area swept by Uranus' orbit around the Sun

|-

|64 quintillion&nbsp;km² || Area swept by Neptune's orbit around the Sun

|-

|10²⁶

|&nbsp;

|110 quintillion&nbsp;km² || Area swept by Pluto's orbit around the Sun<!-- area of ellipse = pi * semi-major axis * (semi-major axis * sqrt(1-eccentricity^2)) semi-major axis = 5.90638e12 m eccentricity ~= 0.2488 => area = 1.061e26 m^2 ~= 1.1e26 m^2-->

|}

10²⁷ square metres and larger

{| class="wikitable"

|+List of orders of magnitude for areas 10²⁷ square metres and larger.

!Factor (m²)

!Multiple

!Value

!Item

|-

|10³⁰

|1 square petametre (Pm²)

|

|

|-

|10³¹

|

|10&nbsp;Pm²

|

|-

| rowspan="2" |10³²

|

|200&nbsp;Pm²

|Roughly the surface area of the Oort Cloud

|-

|

|300&nbsp;Pm²

|Roughly the surface area of a Bok globule

|-

|10³³

|

|1 000&nbsp;Pm²

|

|-

|10³⁴

|

|30 000&nbsp;Pm²

|Roughly the surface area of The Bubble nebula

|-

|10³⁵

|

|100 000&nbsp;Pm²

|

|-

|10³⁶

|1 square exametre (Em²)

|

|

|-

| colspan="4" |...

|-

|10⁴¹

|

|700 000 Em²<!-- Calculation in attempt to verify this number: using 100000 light years as diameter of Milky Way, assume the disk is round, area = pi * (100000 light-years / 2 * 9.5e15 meters/light-year)^2 = 7e41 m^2 -->

|Roughly the area of Milky Way's galactic disk

|-

|10⁴²

|1 square zettametre (Zm²)

|

|

|-

| colspan="4" |...

|-

|10⁴⁸

|1 square yottametre (Ym²)

|

|

|-

|10⁵⁴

|1 square ronnametre (Rm²)

|2.4 Rm²

|Surface area of the observable universe

|}

See also

• Orders of magnitude
• Lists of political and geographic subdivisions by total area

References