| SI units | |
|---|---|
| 10×10−3 m | 10 mm |
| US customary / Imperial units | |
| 32.81×10−3 ft | 0.39370 in |
A centimetre (American spelling: centimeter, symbol cm) is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one hundredth of a metre, which is the current SI base unit of length. Centi is the SI prefix for a factor of 10 − 2.[1] Hence a centimetre can be written as 10×10 − 3 m (engineering notation) or 1 E-2 m (scientific E notation) — meaning 10 × 1 mm or 1 m / 100 respectively. The centimetre is the base unit of length in the now deprecated centimetre-gram-second system of units.
Though for many physical quantities, SI prefixes for factors of 103—like milli- and kilo-—are often preferred by technicians, the centimetre remains a practical unit of length for many everyday measurements. A centimetre is approximately the width of the fingernail of an adult person.
The centimeter is the distance light travels through a vacuum in 
second.
Contents |
1 centimetre is equal to:
1 cubic centimetre is equal to 1 millilitre, under the current SI system of units.
In addition to its use in the measurement of length, the centimetre is used:
For the purposes of compatibility with Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK) characters, Unicode has symbols for: [5]
They are useful only with East Asian fixed-width CJK fonts, because they are equal in size to one Chinese character.
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