Originally Posted By: paul

I know that 12ft^2 = 12 ft * 12 ft = 144 ft

Why are you multiplying 12 by itself? There's no squared symbol on the 12, it doesn't get squared. Also, why are you ignoring one of the ft? There are two, but you dropped one arbitrarily.

It's not 12^2 ft. That would be 144 ft
It's 12ft^2. It's a different quantity.

Treat units like variables

Also you need to use PEMDAS whenever you're doing math. You didn't use it correctly above.

Last edited by kallog; 10/03/11 06:33 PM.