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Kilometre facts for kids

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Kilometre
Unit system metric
Unit of length
Symbol km 
Conversions
1 km in ... ... is equal to ...
   SI units    1000 m
   imperial/US units    0.62137 mi
3280.8 ft
   nautical units    0.53996 nmi

The kilometre is a common unit used for longer distances on Earth. The international unit for measuring distances is the metre and a kilometre is 1000 metres. It is used in some countries for measuring road and sea distances. In the UK and the USA, the mile is used more than kilometres for road distances and the nautical mile for sea distances.

It is often used to measure the speed of cars, planes and boats by saying how many kilometres it can travel in an hour. This is shown as km/h.

It is also spelled kilometer. This spelling is used in American English.

One kilometre is 0.6214 miles (3280.84 feet). This means that one mile is 1.6093 kilometres.

One kilometre is the approximate distance a healthy adult human being can walk in ten minutes.

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See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Kilómetro para niños

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