

This resulted in the measurement of a foot varying between 250 mm and 335 mm in the past compared to the current definition of 304.8 mm. The various lengths were due to parts of the human body historically being used as a basis for units of length (such as the cubit, hand, span, digit, and many others, sometimes referred to as anthropic units). History/origin: Prior to standardization of units of measurement, and the definition of the foot currently in use, the measurement of the foot was used in many different systems including the Greek, Roman, English, Chinese, and French systems, varying in length between each. One foot contains 12 inches, and one yard is comprised of three feet. A foot was defined as exactly 0.3048 meters in 1959. Footĭefinition: A foot (symbol: ft) is a unit of length in the imperial and US customary systems of measurement. Height is commonly measured in centimeters outside of countries like the United States. Learning some of the more commonly used metric prefixes, such as kilo-, mega-, giga-, tera-, centi-, milli-, micro-, and nano-, can be helpful for quickly navigating metric units.Ĭurrent use: The centimeter, like the meter, is used in all sorts of applications worldwide (in countries that have undergone metrication) in instances where a smaller denomination of the meter is required. Metric prefixes range from factors of 10 -18 to 10 18 based on a decimal system, with the base (in this case the meter) having no prefix and having a factor of 1. History/origin: A centimeter is based on the SI unit meter, and as the prefix "centi" indicates, is equal to one hundredth of a meter. Height is commonly measured in centimeters outside of countries like the United States.Definition: A centimeter (symbol: cm) is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), the current form of the metric system.

Centimeterĭefinition: A centimeter (symbol: cm) is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), the current form of the metric system. The United States is one notable exception in that it largely uses US customary units such as yards, inches, feet, and miles instead of meters in everyday use. The current definition of the meter is effectively the same as the definition that was adopted in 1983, with slight modifications due to the change in definition of the second.Ĭurrent use: Being the SI unit of length, the meter is used worldwide in many applications such as measuring distance, height, length, width, etc. In 1960, the meter was again redefined, this time in terms of a certain number of wavelengths of a certain emission line of krypton-86. This changed in 1889, when the International prototype metre was established as the length of a prototype meter bar (made of an alloy of 90% platinum and 10% iridium) measured at the melting point of ice. History/origin: Originally, in 1793, the meter was defined as one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole. This definition was slightly modified in 2019 to reflect changes in the definition of the second. The meter is defined as the distance traveled by light in 1/299 792 458 of a second. Definition: A meter, or metre (symbol: m), is the base unit of length and distance in the International System of Units (SI).
