Square Feet
Abbreviation/Symbol:
sq ft
ft²
When describing architecture or real estate, the square foot is often symbolised as a square with a line or slash through it.
Unit of:
Worldwide use:
The square foot is used mainly in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom as a measurement of area.
Definition:
In metric terms a square foot is a square with sides 0.3048 metres in length. One square foot is the equivalent to 0.09290304 square metres.
Origin:
Nobody recorded a separate origin for the square foot: it is simply the area of a square one foot on each side, which is 144 square inches, so its history is the foot's.
One theory suggests that the square foot measurement may have originated from the ancient Roman system of measurement. The Romans used a unit called the "pes," which was equivalent to approximately 11.65 inches. It is believed that the square foot may have been derived from the square of this unit, resulting in an area measurement of one square foot.
Another possibility is that the square foot measurement evolved from the practice of using the human foot as a unit of measurement. In ancient times, people often used their feet to measure distances and areas. It is likely that the square foot was derived from the area covered by a person's foot when placed side by side.
Common references:
The six floors of the White House (Washington D.C., U.S.A.) have a combined floor-space area of approximately 55,000 square feet.
In 2003 the average new-build house in the UK had a floor-plan of 818 ft², whereas a new-build house in the United States was on average nearly three times larger, with a floor-plan of 2,300 ft².
Usage context:
Divide square feet by 10.76 for square meters – a 2,000 square foot house is about 186 m². Exactly, one square foot is 0.09290304 square meters, or 144 square inches.
Houses, apartments and offices are sized in square feet in the US, and in the UK too, where listings usually give square meters beside it. A US gallon of paint covers roughly 350 to 400 square feet.