convert cm to meters?

Question

I know you multiply cm by 0.01 to convert to meters but if I was finding the area of something with sides 11 cm and 11 cm and I had to have the area in meters, would I convert the cm to meter first and then multiply or would I multiply and then convert. I'm confused because it gives 2 different answers.

11 cm x 11 cm = 121 cm^2
121 cm^2 x 0.01 = 1.21 m^2

or

11 cm x .01 = .11 m
.11 m x .11 m = 0.0121 m^2

Thank you!

Answer 1

There are 100 centimeters in a meter therefore there are 10,000 square centimeters in a 1 square meter. So 121 square centimeters divided by 10000 square centimeters per square meter equals .0121 square meters just like .11 meters x .11 meters equals .0121 square meters. The mistake you made was in converting square centimeters to square meters. you must multiply by 1 x 10 to the negative 4th power rather than 1 x 10 to the negative 2nd power.

Answer 2

the first 1!

Answer 3

11cm *11cm = 121 cm^2
121cm^2 * .01= 1.21m^2

you would first the area in cm then you would convert to m.

Answer 4

1m² = (100cm)² = 10,000cm²

(1cm)² = (0.01cm)² = 0.0001cm²

11cm * 11cm
= 0.11m * 0.11m
= 0.0121m²