You can cut and paste the text below for labeling boxes.  You may wish to add more descriptive text, as is done for the first box.  The labels begin with the 100 meter by 100 meter box.  The 10,000 km by 10,000 km box can’t be drawn in a practical way as explained below.  You may wish to add that text in a placemark placed on Earth’s limn (apparent edge). 


100 meters x 100 meters

100 m x 100 m = 10,000 m2

One hundred meters is the distance a person can run in ten seconds.


1 km x 1 km

1000 meters by 1000 meters = 1 square kilometer.


10 km x 10 km

10 km x 10 km = 10,000 m x 10,000 m = 100,000,000 square meters.


100 km x 100 km

100 km x 100 km = 100,000 m x 100,000 m = 10,000,000,000 square meters


1000 km x 1000 km

1,000,000,000,000 square meters = one trillion square meters.  That's a lot of square meters!


Where a kilometer comes from...

A kilometer was originally defined as one ten thousandth of the distance between the Equator and the Pole.


So, the box 10,000 km on a side ends up not looking very square at all when drawn on a flat map of our round world.  Attempting to use the range rings as a guide doesn’t work here.


A square that's 10,000 kilometers on a side would have a perimeter of 40,000 kilometers. Since 40,000 kilometers is Earth's circumference, you can't draw a square that big on Earth.


If I was drawing this on the globe, what would it look like?

Text for Labels

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  1. The FAQ is now found at the bottom the page, Your Own Powers of Ten.  Click the link and scroll down to see if your question has been addressed.