The idea of surface can be linked to the extent of a territory or land.
The word surface derives from the Latin superficĭes . In its most common use, it refers to a portion of land or the limit of something (that is, the difference between what is a body or an entity and what is not).
For example: "Argentina has an area of 2,780,400 km², making it one of the eight largest countries in the world" , "A large part of the province's surface has been affected by floods" , "The ball bounced off the surface of the playing field .
The surface as an extension of land
Starting from the first example, we can establish that Russia is the country with the largest area in the world as it has just over 17 million square kilometers. He would be followed by others such as Canada, the United States, China, Brazil, Australia, India and Argentina.
Likewise, in contrast to all these nations that are in the top ten of the largest that exist on the entire planet, we have to emphasize that the Vatican City is the country with the smallest surface area since its extension does not exceed what is the square kilometer.
Measurement units
It is also very important to know the different surface measurements that exist and that we use daily to determine it. In this sense, we can establish that undoubtedly the fundamental unit to measure these areas is the square meter, which would be equivalent to the surface area of a square with 1 meter on each side.
However, other measurements can also be used, such as the square kilometer, which is equivalent to one million square meters, the square hectometer, which is equal to ten thousand square meters, or the square decameter, which is equivalent to one hundred square meters.
Among the measurements used below the fundamental unit are the square decimeter (0.01 square meter), the square centimeter (0.0001 square meter) and the square millimeter (0.000001 square meter).
Starting from all this, we see that to go from some units to others the option is to multiply or divide by the unit followed by as many pairs of zeros as there are places between them.
The external appearance of things is referred to as surface.
Surface as external appearance and in physics
The surface, on the other hand, is the external appearance of something: “The table has a surface that is too rough and is uncomfortable when eating,” “I like dresses with a smooth surface,” “The surface of this fruit is "rough."
For physics , the surface is also a magnitude that indicates the extension of an object in two dimensions: length and width. Its unit in the International System is the square meter (m²) .
The notion in geometry and mathematics
For geometry and mathematics , the surface is an extension in which only two dimensions are taken into consideration. The surface, in these cases, is classified as a two-dimensional variety .
A surface of revolution , finally, is one that is produced when a plane curve rotates around an axis that is in the same plane. If what rotates is a straight line that is parallel to its axis, it is called a cylindrical surface of revolution . Other surfaces of revolution are the conical surface of revolution , the spherical surface of revolution , and the toroidal surface of revolution .