1 E6 m² facts for kids

Imagine trying to describe how big a park or a small country is. We need a way to measure these areas! One common way is using a unit called a square kilometre. It helps us understand and compare the sizes of different places on Earth.

Understanding Area: Square Kilometres

A square kilometre (often written as km²) is a way to measure the size of a flat surface, like a piece of land. It's part of the SI (which stands for the International System of Units), a worldwide standard for measurements.

What is a Square Kilometre?

Think of a square. If each side of that square is exactly one kilometre (1,000 metres) long, then the area inside that square is one square kilometre.

To give you an idea of its size, one square kilometre is the same as:

• 1,000,000 square metres (that's 1 million square metres!)
• 100 hectares (a hectare is 10,000 square metres)
• About 0.386 square miles (less than half a square mile)
• About 247 acres (an acre is roughly the size of a football field)

How Big Are Different Places?

Let's look at some real-world examples to help you picture how big a square kilometre is, and how other areas compare.

• Areas smaller than 1 km²:
  • 179 hectares (1.79 km²) – This is the size of Bennebroek, one of the smallest towns in the Netherlands.
  • 195 hectares (1.95 km²) – This is the area of Monaco, a tiny country in Europe. It's one of the smallest countries in the world!
  • 200 hectares (2 km²) – This is the size of Herm, a small island in the Channel Islands.
  • 250 hectares (2.5 km²) – Together, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens in London cover this much space. They are two famous parks where people go to relax and play.
  • 290 hectares (2.9 km²) – This is the size of the City of London, the historic heart of London, England.
  • 320 hectares (3.2 km²) – Hampstead Heath is another large, popular park in London.
  • 341 hectares (3.41 km²) – This is the area of Central Park in New York City, a huge green space in the middle of a busy city.
  • 400 hectares (4 km²) – The Great Wall of China is an amazing human-made structure, and its total area covers about 4 square kilometres.
  • 460 hectares (4.6 km²) – Pitcairn Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean.
  • 493 hectares (4.93 km²) – The campus of the University of the Philippines Diliman is this big.
  • 650 hectares (6.5 km²) – Gibraltar is a small territory located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula.
  • 890 hectares (8.9 km²) – Believe it or not, the largest known organism on Earth, a fungus called Armillaria ostoyae, covers an area this big! It lives mostly underground.

• Areas larger than 10 km²:
  • There are many places much larger than 10 square kilometres, like cities, states, and entire countries. You can find more examples in articles about Areas larger than 10 km².

See also

In Spanish: Anexo:Órdenes de magnitud (superficie) para niños