Convert Circular Mil (circ mil) to Square Foot (US Survey) (ft² (US)) instantly.
About these units
Circular Mil (circ mil)
A circular mil is defined as the area of a circle with a diameter of exactly one mil. Because wires and cables have circular cross-sections, the circular mil has become a standard unit in electrical engineering for specifying conductor sizes. One circular mil simplifies calculations because area scales directly with the square of wire diameter without needing π in computations. For example, doubling a wire's diameter increases its circular-mil area fourfold. This makes circular mils extremely convenient for determining ampacity, resistance, and voltage drop in electrical conductors. Even though SI units are common elsewhere, the circular mil remains entrenched in North American electrical codes.
Square Foot (US Survey) (ft² (US))
The US survey square foot is defined using the US survey foot and differs minutely from the international square foot. While the difference is negligible in everyday contexts, in land surveying even tiny discrepancies matter because property boundaries, right-of-way extents, and engineering alignments may accumulate errors over long distances. Surveyors and civil engineers must interpret historical documents using survey-based values to ensure legal consistency with old plats, deeds, and boundary descriptions.