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Rumpy
 
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Well, I stand corrected, but I am a bit curios now. If it written as
(500ft)^2 would it then be what I was mistakenly thinking? Either way,
thanks for setting me straight on this point.



"Robert Bonomi" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Rumpy wrote:
Where I come from, square feet and feet squared mean two different things.
500' X 500' is 500 feet squared, 25' X 20' is 500 square feet. 10^2 is
100,


Nit pick: There is no such thing as "500 feet squared"
it is "500 feet square". Without the trailing 'd'.

not the sum of 2 X 5, but I may be more of a math nerd than a contractor,
so
perhaps ft^2 does equate to sqft 'round here.


If you _were_ a real math nerd, you'd know how wrong you are. grin

ft^2 is _universally_ understood in scientific and engineering circles to
mean 'square feet'.

When doing math involving terms with 'units' attached, the convention is
that you group the 'pure arithmetic' quantities first, and the consolidate
the 'units separately. and perform the indicated operations on each part.
thus "500 ft X 500 ft" is "500*500 ft*ft", or 250000 ft^2 (and read as
"2500 square feet.") an exponent in the 'units' does *NOT* apply to the
'arithmetic quantity' part of the expression.

This holds whether you are doing 'simple' things like distance/time =
velocity,
or messy stuff which could involve terms with units like "newton
meters/sec^2"




"Robert Bonomi" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Rumpy wrote:
There seems to be some, but not a lot of ipe data already on this
newsgroup. I'm preparing to have a ~500 ft^2 deck replaced using 1x6
ipe (the old deck was 2x6 cedar). Because there is almost no local
experience using ipe I've had to spec out everything myself to decking
contractors. I think I have most of the topics covered (anchorseal,
ss
fasteners, carbide teeth on saws). I'd really appreciate if anyone
could provide their suggestions on:

500 Feet squared is 500' X 500', that is one big deck. Do you mean 500
sqft?

25 ft * 20 ft == 25*20 ft*ft == 500 ft^2

ft^2 _is_ "square foot"

ft^3 is "cubic foot"

But, I figure you know all that, and are just jerking his chain.