Integrated Sciences (IS)

Measurement of Length

Reference standards of measurements have undergone continuous improvements in precision.

The standard unit of length in the metric system is the meter.

When the metric system was first introduce in the 1790s, the meter was defined as one (1) ten-
millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole measured along the meridian
passing through Dunkirk, France. In 1889 the meter was redefined as the distance between two
(2) engraved lines on a platinum-iridium alloy bar maintained at 00 Celsius. This international
meter bar is stored in a vault at Sevres near Paris. Duplicate meter bars have been made and
are used as standards by many nations.

By the 1950s length could be measured with such precision that a new standard was needed.
Accordingly, the length of the meter was redefined in 1960 and again in 1983. The latest
definition is: A meter is the distance that light travels in a vacuum during 1/299, 792,458 of a
second.

A meter is 39.37 inches, a little longer than one (1) yard. One meter contains 10 decimeters,
100 centimeters, or 1000 millimeters. A kilometer contains 1000 meters

The angstrom unit, abbreviated as Å, is equal to 10-10 m, is used extensively in expressing the
wavelength of light and in atomic dimensions. Other important relationships are:

1.0 m = 100 cm = 1000 mm = 106 µm = 1010 Å

1.0 cm = 10 mm = 0.01 m
1.0 in = 2.54 cm
1.0 mile = 1.61 km

Units of Length
Unit Abbreviation Meter equivalent Exponential equivalent
kilometer km 1000 m 103 m
meter m 1m 100 m
decimeter dm 0.1 m 10-1 m
centimeter cm 0.01 m 10-2 m
millimeter mm 0.001 m 10-3 m
micrometer µm 0.000001 10-6 m
nanometer nm 0.000000001 m 10-9 m
angstrom Å 0.0000000001 m 10-10 m