An area converter changes a surface measurement from one unit into another — square feet to square metres, or acres to hectares. It comes up constantly in property listings, floor plans, land records and gardening, where the same plot may be quoted in square feet by an agent, square metres on a drawing and acres in the title deed. This tool covers metric units (mm², cm², m², km²), imperial units (in², ft², yd²) and the two land-measure units, the acre and the hectare.
The formula. Every value passes through one base unit, the square metre. Because area is a length squared, each factor is the length factor squared: 1 ft² = 0.09290304 m² (that is 0.3048², since 1 ft = 0.3048 m), 1 in² = 0.00064516 m², 1 yd² = 0.83612736 m², 1 acre = 4,046.86 m² and 1 hectare = 10,000 m² exactly. A value is multiplied to square metres, then divided by the target unit's factor: result = value × factor(from) ÷ factor(to).
Worked example. A plot measuring 30 ft × 40 ft is 1,200 ft². Multiplying by 0.09290304 gives 111.48 m². Since 1 acre is 43,560 ft², the same plot is 1,200 ÷ 43,560 ≈ 0.0275 acres. Going the other way, a 2-hectare farm is 20,000 m², or about 4.94 acres.
Where it's used. Area conversion runs through real estate and construction: Indian property is advertised in square feet while approvals are filed in square metres, farmland is recorded in acres in the US and UK but hectares across most of Europe, and carpet, tile and paint are all sold by coverage area. A doubling of a room's linear dimensions quadruples its area — the squared factors are exactly why estimates go wrong when units are mixed.