Square Inches and Square Centimeters Converter

Using the Square Inches and Square Centimeters Converter

This converter allows you to convert between two popular units for measuring area, the imperial unit of square inches (in²) and the metric unit of square centimeters (cm²).

As a first step, you’ll pick between the American and the British spelling at the top of the converter, so the way the word meter is spelled, which will translate to how the word centimeter is spelled, is done in the way you prefer (the British way is to spell it as ‘metre’ and ‘centimetre’).

You can then move toward the ‘CONVERT FROM’ section where you choose between square inches (in²) or square centimeters (cm²) as your input unit.

Choose between the same two units in the ‘CONVERT TO’ section, which will determine your output.

Alternatively, you can stick to the preselected units or simply click the icon with the arrows pointed in the opposite direction to swap their positions.

Enter the value you want to convert as a decimal number in the ‘VALUE TO CONVERT’ section.

After setting the number of decimal places you’d like your result to be rounded toward, click on ‘CONVERT’ and you’ll receive your desired result along with the conversion rate between the two units you are converting.

The ‘COPY’ button is placed conveniently right next to your result, so you can use it elsewhere if you need to.

Converting Square Inches and Square Centimeters Manually

Based on this descriptive definition, we can come up with the exchange rates and formulae for manual conversions of these two units.

Starting with the fact that 1 cm is equivalent to about 0.39 in, while 1 in is equivalent to about 2.54 cm, the following can be written down.

Once we defined square centimeters and inches as squares with a side length of either 1 cm or 1 in, we can calculate said areas by simply putting the side lengths to the power of 2.

This not only creates the desired units of cm² and in² but also calculates the conversion rates between them.

From these conversion rates, two formulae can be developed, each suitable for a different input and output unit.

For converting cm² to in², we will use the following formula.

in^2 = cm^2 * 0.1521

The next formula is more suitable for converting in² to cm².

cm^2 = in^2 * 6.4516

Let’s demonstrate the usage of these two formulae on worked-out examples.

EXAMPLE 1: Betty is trying to publish a book through a French website. The website is offering her to print her book cover with an area of 42 cm². Betty is not familiar with cm² and needs to know the area in in². How many in² would this cover have?

We will use the first formula, as we are trying to convert cm² into in². We substitute 42 for cm² and count as follows.

in^2 = cm^2 * 0.1521 \\= 42 * 0.1521 \\= 6.3882 ~in^2

EXAMPLE 2: A device has a screen with an area of 8 in². Tony would like to know the area in cm², a unit he is more familiar with. How many cm² does the screen have, rounded to one decimal place?

We will use the second formula, as we are converting in² to cm². We substitute 8 for in² and calculate as follows.

cm^2 = in^2 * 6.4516 \\= 8 * 6.4516 \\= 51.6128 ~cm^2

We round the result to one decimal place and get an area of 51.6 cm².

How Big are Square Inches and Square Centimeters

In order to gain a better understanding of the size of a square inch and a square centimeter, we can first remember, that around 6 to 7 square centimeters fit into a square inch.

However, it might be easier said than imagined. That is why we offer 4 examples of everyday items and their areas in either in² or cm² for an easier intuitive approximation of the size of these units.