A
centimetre
(the
American
spelling is
centimeter
, symbol
cm
) is a
unit of length
in the International System of Units (SI) measurement system. It is equal to one hundredth of a
metre
. Centi- is placed in front to say 'a hundredth'. The centimeter is the base unit of length in the old
centimeter-gram-second
(CGS) system of units.
The centimetre is usually used to
measure
things that are too big for
millimetre
but too small for metres. A centimetre is close to the length of a fingernail.
Similarities to other units of length
change
A carpenters' ruler with centimetre markings
1 centimetre is
equal
to:
- 10 millimetres
- 0.01 metre (1 metre is equal to 100 centimetres)
- about 0.393700787401575
inch
(1 inch is equal to 2.54 centimetres)
[1]
1 cubic centimetre is equal to 1
millilitre
, under the
SI
system of units.
The centimetre is also used:
- sometimes, to measure how much rain has fallen into a
rain gauge
;
[2]
- for heights of people, especially
athletes
, in
metric
nations;
- in maps, centimetres are used to change from map scale to real-world scale of landscapes (kilometres).
The centimetre has Unicode symbols so it can be written in
Mandarin Chinese
,
Japanese
and
Korean
characters.
[3]
- centimetre (㎝) - code 339D
- square centimetre (㎠) - code 33A0
- cubic centimetre (㎤) - code 33A4
They are placed into one character, and it is mostly used with East Asian fonts.