cm2

cm2, commonly written cm², stands for square centimeter, a unit of area in the metric system. It results from squaring the base unit of length, the centimeter (cm). Because 1 cm equals 0.01 meters, 1 cm² equals 0.0001 m².

In terms of prefixes, cm² is equal to 100 square millimeters (mm²) since 1 cm = 10 mm, so 1 cm² = 100 mm². The relationship to square meters is 1 m² = 10,000 cm². To convert from cm² to m², multiply by 1e-4; to convert from cm² to mm², multiply by 100. Conversely, to convert to square inches, 1 cm² ≈ 0.155 in², and 1 in² ≈ 6.452 cm².

cm² is commonly used for small surface areas such as the area of a coin, a smartphone screen, fabric patches, or skin areas in physiology and medicine. It is an SI-derived unit and is widely accepted for technical and scientific measurements.

Note that cm² denotes area; its cubic counterpart, cm³, denotes volume. The notation cm2 without the superscript is sometimes used informally, but the standard form is cm².