Square Meters and Square Decimeters Converter

Using the Square Meters and Square Decimeters Converter

This converter can find equivalent values between two metric units of area, square meters (m²), and square decimeters (dm²). The following steps will teach you how to use the converter efficiently.

Additionally, a ‘COPY’ button appears next to your result which you can use for easy copying and pasting of the result into other pieces of writing, in case you need it. 

Converting Square Meters and Square Decimeters Manually

It is quite easy to manually convert between two metric units, as the conversion rate is defined by 10 to the power of an integer for all metric units.

In the case of square meters and decimeters, we start by describing each unit as the area of a square.

A square decimeter is a unit of area equal to the area of a square with a side length of 1 decimeter. A decimeter is defined, as the name suggests (‘deci’ being a Latin prefix for a tenth of something) as 1/10 of a meter. This means that both sides of the square are equal to 0.1 meters, leading to the area being equivalent to 0.1 x 0.1 = 0.01 m².

A square meter is a unit of area equal to the area of a square with a side length of 1 meter. That means that the area of this square is 1 x 1 = 1 m².

This shows us that the conversion rate between dm² and m² is 0.01:1, which can be expanded to a more convenient rate of 100:1.

The 2 formulae we can derive from this rate are.

dm^2 = m^2 * 100

m^2 = dm^2  \div 100

As we can see, it is easier to define the conversion from dm² to m² by division. We could alternatively propose a formula of M² = DM² x 0.01 which would lead to the same result.

The following two examples will demonstrate how these formulae are used in real life.

EXAMPLE 1: A board with an area of 2.45 m² is placed in a classroom. What is the area of this board in dm²?

We are looking for a formula with dm² as the subject, expressed in m². The first proposed formula matches the criteria. We substitute 2.45 for m² and count as follows.

dm^2 = m^2 * 100 \\= 2.45 * 100 \\= 245 ~dm^2.

EXAMPLE 2: A tablecloth has an area of 24 dm². What is the area of this tablecloth expressed in m²?

We will use the second formula, as our input is now in dm² and output in m². We substitute 24 for dm² and calculate as follows.

m^2 = dm^2 \div 100 \\= 24 \div 100 = 0.24 ~m^2.

Converting Square Meters and Square Decimeters Without a Calculator

Conversion of 2 metric units is often possible even without a calculator, as their conversion rates are determined by a multiple of 10, in this case, 100.

Multiplying by 100 requires us to move the decimal dot 2 places to the right. If there is not a sufficient number of decimal numbers after the decimal dot, we fill those spaces with zeroes. This technique will be used when converting from square meters to square decimeters.

EXAMPLE 1: Convert 3.2 m² to dm².

We must multiply 3.2 by 100, hence we move the decimal dot 2 places to the right. We have only 1 decimal value written after the decimal dot, so we fill the second position by a 0 and get 320 dm².

Dividing by 100 requires us to move the decimal dot 2 places to the left. If there is not a sufficient number of digits before the decimal dot, we fill those spaces with zeroes and then add a zero before the decimal dot. This technique will be used when converting from square decimeters to square meters.

EXAMPLE 2: Convert 1.44 dm² to m².

Here, we need to divide by 100, hence we have to move the decimal dot 2 places to the left. We have only 1 digit before the decimal dot, so we fill up the missing space with a zero while putting another zero before the decimal dot. This results in 0.0144 m².

How Large is a Square Decimeter

The following list contains a few everyday items you might be familiar with, and their areas expressed in dm². The purpose of this list is to gain a better approximation of how big a dm² actually is.