In response to Pierre's question, the Babylon translator gave me "Quadratmeter" as the German translation for square metres. Thus "drei quadratmeter" is clearly 3 m², not 9m², as is "three square metres".
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of James R. Frysinger Sent: 06 February 2011 01:33 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:49778] Re: Screen size conundrum In the SI Brochure, NIST SP 330, NIST SP 814, and SI 10 the matter is clear stated such that "2 meters squared" means 2 m^2, not 4 m^2. It's just like saying "2 x squared" to mean 2x^2, not 4x^2. I.e., the "squared" means the exponent 2 which is applied only to the unit (including prefix, if any) and not to the numerical value. Jim On 2011-02-05 1843, Pierre Abbat wrote: > I understand "2 meters squared" or "a two-meter square" to mean a 2 m × 2 m > square, and "2 square meters" to be 2 m² regardless of shape. However, in > French or Spanish "2 metros cuadrados / mètres carrés" is 2 m², and "un carré > de 2 mètres / un cuadrado de 2 metros" is a 2 m × 2 m square. But English is > not the only language in which adjectives usually precede nouns, nor are > French and Spanish the only ones in which they follow. How would you say them > in German? -- James R. Frysinger 632 Stony Point Mountain Road Doyle, TN 38559-3030 (C) 931.212.0267 (H) 931.657.3107 (F) 931.657.3108
