Square Yards and Square Feet Converter
Using the Square Yards and Square Feet Converter
The converter above allows you to convert between 2 imperial units of area, the square yards (yd2) and the square feet (ft2).
| # | Step |
|---|---|
| 1 | Start by choosing the preferred spelling throughout the converter. The choice is between the British and the American spelling. |
| 2 | Move to the ‘CONVERT FROM’ section of the converter and choose your input unit (the unit of the value you want to convert). There are two possible choices, either the square yards or the square feet. |
| 3 | The output unit (the one your result will come in) can be selected in the ‘CONVERT TO’ section of the converter. The choice is between the same 2 units as in the case of the input. |
| 4 | You can also choose your input and output by simply accepting the default settings or you can swap them by clicking on the icon with two arrows headed in opposite directions. |
| 5 | Once the units are chosen, you can move toward the ‘VALUE TO CONVERT’ part, where you type in the value you are trying to convert. Make sure it is a decimal number, using the decimal dot (some countries use a comma instead, hence the warning). |
| 6 | Afterward, choose the number of decimal places you want your result rounded toward and click on ‘CONVERT’. |
The result will appear below the converter alongside the conversion rate between the input and output units, as well as a convenient ‘COPY’ button which allows you to easily copy and paste the result elsewhere.
Converting Square Yards and Square Feet Manually
Unit conversion is always determined by the conversion rate between the units. A conversion rate expresses the value of a unit that is equal to the value 1 of another unit.
Square units are always defined by the square values of units of length that define them.
Hence a square yard is equivalent in area to a square with a side length of 1 yard, while a square foot is equivalent in area to a square with a side length of 1 foot.
Knowing that 1 yard is equivalent to 3 feet, it is not hard to square both values and see that 1 square yard is equivalent to 9 square feet.
This relationship defines the conversion rate of square yards to square feet as 1:9. This can help us with creating 2 simple formulae, which will make manual conversions between the units very easy.
We could be satisfied with just 1 formula, as it would be sufficient for calculating both directions of the conversion. However, having two formulae and then using the one where the output value is the same as the subject (the standalone value on the left side of the formula) makes calculations smoother and easier.
yd^2 = ft^2\div9
ft^2 = yd^2*9
Let’s have a look at 2 examples that demonstrate the use of these formulae in practice.
EXAMPLE 1: A room has an area of 180 square feet. What is the area of this room in square yards?
This problem has the output in square yards, which means that we will be using the first formula. We substitute 180 for FT2 and count as follows.
yd^2 = ft^2\div9 \\= 180\div9 = 20 ~yd^2
EXAMPLE 2: A garden with an area of 34 square yards needs to be fertilized. The gardening shop can only assist with the correct amount of fertilizer if they have the area in square feet. What is the area of this garden in square feet?
As the output of this problem is in square feet, we will be choosing the second formula. We substitute 34 for YD2 and count as follows.
ft^2 = yd^2*9 \\= 34*9 = 306 ~ft^2
Approximating Square Yards and Square Feet
The conversion rate between the two units is defined by the number 9. Counting with 9 from memory can prove to be a challenging task, especially when decimal numbers are involved.
However, for the sake of approximation, the number 10 is very close to 9.
Additionally, multiplying and dividing by 10 is very easy, as it is a question of moving the decimal dot 1 position to the right or filling a missing digit with a zero (in case of multiplication), or moving the decimal dot 1 position to the left and filling a missing digit with a zero, including an extra zero in the position of ones if needed (in case of dividing).
The following two examples will demonstrate how to approximate using this trick.
EXAMPLE 1: Convert 22 yd2 to ft2.
In this case, we approximate by multiplying with 10, which means adding an extra zero at the tail of 22, resulting in 220 ft2. The result from the converter is 198, showing that this approximation is a fairly close one.
EXAMPLE 2: Convert 125 ft2 to yd2.
Here we divide by 10 in order to approximate. Hence we move the decimal dot from the end of the number 1 position to the left. We get 12.5 yd2 as the approximation. Comparing it to the result from the converter, which is 13.89, we see that the approximation is fairly close.
