330px, Different lengths as in respect to the Electromagnetic spectrum, measured by the Metre and its deriveds scales. The Microwave are in-between 1 meter to 1 millimeter. A centimetre (international spelling) or centimeter (American spelling) (SI symbol cm) is a Units of measurement, unit of

length Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a base unit for length is chosen, from which all other units are derived. In the Interna ...

in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one hundredth of a

metre The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pref ...

, ''centi'' being the

SI prefix The International System of Units, known by the international abbreviation SI in all languages and sometimes pleonastically as the SI system, is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of measurement. E ...

for a factor of . The centimetre was the base unit of length in the now deprecated centimetre–gram–second (CGS) system of units. Though for many physical quantities,

es 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 average adult person.

Equivalence to other units of length

: One

millilitre The litre (international spelling) or liter (American English spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3) ...

is defined as one cubic centimetre, under the SI system of units.

Other uses

In addition to its use in the measurement of

, the centimetre is used: * sometimes, to report the level of rainfall as measured by a

rain gauge A rain gauge (also known as udometer, pluvia metior, pluviometer, ombrometer, and hyetometer) is an instrument used by meteorologists and hydrologists to gather and measure the amount of liquid precipitation over a predefined area, over a period o ...

* in the CGS system, the centimetre is used to measure

capacitance Capacitance is the capability of a material object or device to store electric charge. It is measured by the change in charge in response to a difference in electric potential, expressed as the ratio of those quantities. Commonly recognized are ...

, where 1 cm of capacitance =

farad The farad (symbol: F) is the unit of electrical capacitance, the ability of a body to store an electrical charge, in the International System of Units (SI). It is named after the English physicist Michael Faraday (1791–1867). In SI base unit ...

s * in maps, centimetres are used to make conversions from map scale to real world scale (kilometres) * to represent second moment of areas (cm⁴) * as the inverse of the Kayser, a CGS unit, and thus a non-SI metric unit of

wavenumber In the physical sciences, the wavenumber (also wave number or repetency) is the ''spatial frequency'' of a wave, measured in cycles per unit distance (ordinary wavenumber) or radians per unit distance (angular wavenumber). It is analogous to temp ...

: 1 kayser = 1 wave per centimetre; or, more generally, (wavenumber in kaysers) = 1/(

wavelength In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, tro ...

in centimetres). The SI unit of wavenumber is the inverse metre, m⁻¹.

Unicode symbols

For the purposes of compatibility with

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

and

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

n ( CJK) characters,

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...

has symbols for:CJK Compatibility excerpt
from The Unicode Standard, Version 10.0. * centimetre – * square centimetre – * cubic centimetre – They are mostly used only with East Asian fixed-width CJK fonts, because they are equal in size to one Chinese character.

References

{{Authority control Metre -02 Centimetre–gram–second system of units SI units 100 (number)

Equivalence to other units of length

Other uses

Unicode symbols

See also

References