Convert Square Millimeter (mm²) to Barn (b (area)) instantly.
About these units
Square Millimeter (mm²)
A square millimeter represents the area of a square measuring 1 millimeter on each side. It is a tiny unit used extensively in engineering, electronics, material science, and medical instrumentation. Mechanical designers use mm² to determine cross-sectional areas of wires, beams, micro-mechanical parts, and precision components. In electronics, PCB traces, microchips, and sensors often specify dimensions in mm² for clarity and precision. Biomedical sciences also use mm² for cell colony measurements, tissue sample surfaces, and microscopic fields of view. Its size makes it ideal for quantifying structures too small for cm² but too large for micrometer-scale units.
Barn (b (area))
The barn is an area unit used almost exclusively in nuclear and particle physics, equal to 10⁻²⁸ square meters. Despite its incredibly tiny size, the barn emerged from humorous origins: early nuclear physicists joked that certain atomic nuclei were "as big as a barn" compared to the particles trying to hit them. The barn quantifies interaction cross-sections—essentially probabilities of particles colliding or interacting with nuclei. Because fundamental forces operate at extremely small scales, typical cross-section values lie in the microbarn, nanobarn, or picobarn range. The barn is essential for describing reaction rates in particle accelerators, nuclear reactors, and astrophysical processes such as stellar fusion.