Convert Plaza (plaza) to Sabin (sabin) instantly.
About these units
Plaza (plaza)
A plaza is a traditional Spanish area unit, historically used in various regions of Latin America and Spain. Its value varied widely by locality—commonly ranging between 2,700 and 3,000 square meters—depending on the colonial or municipal standards in effect at the time. The plaza's origin is linked to urban planning under Spanish colonial rule. Town centers in Spanish America were often designed around a central plaza, and surrounding parcels were measured using plaza-based units, embedding the measurement into the cultural fabric of settlement. In agricultural contexts, plazas were sometimes used to define modest landholdings such as gardens, homestead plots, or small fields. While largely replaced by metric units today, the plaza remains significant in historical cartography, land deeds, and anthropological studies of Iberian and colonial town development. It stands as a reminder that measurements often evolve out of cultural-practical needs rather than pure geometric abstraction.
Sabin (sabin)
A sabin is the acoustic unit of sound absorption area, equivalent to the absorption provided by one square foot of a perfectly absorbing surface. Unlike geometric area units, the sabin measures how much sound energy a surface absorbs rather than its physical size alone. Materials with partial absorption effectiveness—such as acoustic tiles or drapes—contribute fractional sabins depending on their absorption coefficient. Architects and acoustic engineers use sabins to design theaters, concert halls, classrooms, and workplaces. The unit translates directly into reverberation time calculations, making it a foundational concept in architectural acoustics.