To convert centimeters to meters (cm to m), multiply by 0.01. 1 centimeter equals 0.01 m, about 1.7 times as much as a grain of rice.
| centimeters | meters |
|---|---|
| 1 centimeter | 0.01 m |
| 2 centimeters | 0.02 m |
| 5 centimeters | 0.05 m |
| 10 centimeters | 0.1 m |
| 25 centimeters | 0.25 m |
| 50 centimeters | 0.5 m |
| 100 centimeters | 1 m |
| 250 centimeters | 2.5 m |
| 500 centimeters | 5 m |
| 1000 centimeters | 10 m |
Definition: 1/100 of a meter - the "centi" prefix doing the same job it does in "century" or "cent."
History: Introduced alongside the meter itself during the French Revolution's metric overhaul, the centimeter was designed from the start to be a convenient, everyday-sized subdivision - a meter is often too big and a millimeter too small for describing things like a person's height or a book's thickness.
Current use: Height, everyday object sizes, and fabric measurements across most of the world; also the standard unit doctors use internationally for body measurements.
Definition: The base unit of length in the metric system - every other metric length (km, cm, mm) is just meters multiplied or divided by a power of ten.
History: Born out of the French Revolution's push to replace a chaotic patchwork of local, often royally-defined units with something rational and universal. In 1793, French scientists defined the meter as one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator, measured along the meridian running through Paris - they actually sent surveyors out to physically measure the distance between Dunkirk and Barcelona to calculate it, a project that took years longer than planned. Today the meter is defined by something far more precise and impossible to argue with: the distance light travels in a tiny, fixed fraction of a second.
Current use: The foundation of virtually every length measurement outside the US - room dimensions, building heights, and race distances (measured in km) all build on it.