Metre

The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling) (symbol: m) is the basic unit of length in the SI measurement system. The symbol for the metre is m. The first meaning (in the French Revolution) was one ten-millionth of the distance between the Earth's equator and the North Pole along the Paris meridian. The metre is now defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.

This giraffe is nearly five metres tall.

In the imperial system of measurement, one yard is 0.9144 metres (after international agreement in 1959), so a metre is very near to 39.37 inches: about 3.281 feet, or 1.0936 yards.

The bar (made of platinum and iridium) that defined the length of a metre until 1960.

Units multiples

• 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 001 Qm (quettametre) = 1 m
• 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 001 Rm (ronnametre) = 1 m
• 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 001 Ym (yotametre) = 1 m
• 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 001 Zm (zetametre) = 1 m
• 0.000 000 000 000 000 001 Em (exametre) = 1 m
• 0.000 000 000 000 001 Pm (petametre) = 1 m
• 0.000 000 000 001 Tm (terametre) = 1 m
• 0.000 000 001 Gm (gigametre) = 1 m
• 0.000 001 Mm (megametre) = 1 m
• 0.001 km (kilometre) = 1 m
• 0.01 hm (hectometre) = 1 m
• 0.1 dam(decametre) = 1 m
• 1 m (metre)
• 10 dm (decimetres) = 1 m
• 100 cm (centimetres) = 1 m
• 1000 mm (millimetres) = 1 m
• 1 000 000 μm (micrometres) = 1 m
• 1 000 000 000 nm (nanometres) = 1 m
• 1 000 000 000 000 pm (picometres) = 1 m
• 1 000 000 000 000 000 fm (fermi or femtometres) = 1 m
• 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 am (attometres) = 1 m
• 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 zm (zeptometres) = 1 m
• 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 ym (yoctometres) = 1 m
• 10^27 rm (rontometre)
• 10^30 qm (quettametre)

Related pages

• Metre Convention