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Centimetre facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

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 centimetre is the base unit of length in the old centimetre-gram-second (CGS) system of units.

The centimetre is usually used to measure things that are too big for millimetres but too small for metres. A centimetre is close to the length of a fingernail.

Similarities to other units of length

CarpentersRule
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 cubic centimetre is equal to 1 millilitre, under the SI system of units.

Uses of centimetre

The centimetre is also used:

  • sometimes, to measure how much rain has fallen into a rain gauge;
  • 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).

Unicode symbols

The centimetre has Unicode symbols so it can be written in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters.

  • 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.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Centímetro para niños

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Centimetre Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.