"Rumpy" writes:

Where I come from, square feet and feet squared mean two different things.

Well, square feet a prebably better to walk with than crooked ones,
but ft^2 and sqft *are* synonyms.

500' X 500' is 500 feet squared,

yes

25' X 20' is 500 square feet. 10^2 is 100,

yes.

But:
500 ft^2 is not the same as (500 ft)^2, as the exponentiation binds
stronger then the multiplication, as in 3*10^2=300 and *not* 900...

not the sum of 2 X 5, but I may be more of a math nerd

.... but confusing operator precedence rules.

--
Dr. Juergen Hannappel http://lisa2.physik.uni-bonn.de/~hannappe
Phone: +49 228 73 2447 FAX ... 7869
Physikalisches Institut der Uni Bonn Nussallee 12, D-53115 Bonn, Germany
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