Imagine that a parent bought a basketball for their son or daughter. If they wrapped the ball with wrapping paper, then that wrapping paper can be unwrapped to form a flat sheet. So the area of the sheet corresponds directly to the surface area. If the sheet is say 1 meter by 1 meter, then the area is 1*1 = 1 square meter. We can abbreviate "square meters" into "meter^2" or "m^2".
