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Metre facts for kids

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"Nm" and "NM" redirect here. For the U.S. state shortened to "NM", see New Mexico.
5 metres (8349446738) (2)
This giraffe is nearly five metres tall.

A metre (US spelling, meter) is the basic unit of length in the SI measurement system. The symbol for the metre is m. The first meaning (in the French Revolution) was one ten-millionth of the distance between the Earth's equator and the North Pole along the Paris meridian. The metre is now defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.

In the imperial system of measurement, one yard is 0.9144 metres (after international agreement in 1959), so a metre is very close to 39.37 inches: about 3.281 feet, or 1.0936 yards.

Platinum-Iridium meter bar
The bar (made of platinum and iridium) that defined the length of a metre until 1960.

Units multiples

  • 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 001 Ym (yotametre) = 1 m
  • 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 001 Zm (zetametre) = 1 m
  • 0.000 000 000 000 000 001 Em (exametre) = 1 m
  • 0.000 000 000 000 001 Pm (petametre) = 1 m
  • 0.000 000 000 001 Tm (terametre) = 1 m
  • 0.000 000 001 Gm (gigametre) = 1 m
  • 0.000 001 Mm (megametre) = 1 m
  • 0.001 km (kilometre) = 1 m
  • 0.01 hm (hectometre) = 1 m
  • 0.1 dam(decametre) = 1 m
  • 1 m (metre)
  • 10 dm (decimetres) = 1 m
  • 100 cm (centimetres) = 1 m
  • 1000 mm (millimetres) = 1 m
  • 1 000 000 μm (micrometres) = 1 m
  • 1 000 000 000 nm (nanometres) = 1 m
  • 1 000 000 000 000 pm (picometres) = 1 m
  • 1 000 000 000 000 000 fm (fermi or femtometres) = 1 m
  • 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 am (attometres) = 1 m
  • 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 zm (zeptometres) = 1 m
  • 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 ym (yoctometres) = 1 m

*Note: units in bold are the most commonly used.

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Images for kids

  • Obs-Paris-meridienne

    Meridian room of the Paris Observatory (or Cassini room): the Paris meridian is drawn on the ground.

  • HasslerCollection 001

    Triangulation near New York City, 1817.

  • Appareil Ibáñez

    Swiss baseline measurement with Ibáñez apparatus in 1880.

  • Metre alloy

    Creating the metre-alloy in 1874 at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers. Present Henri Tresca, George Matthey, Saint-Claire Deville and Debray

  • US National Length Meter

    Closeup of National Prototype Metre Bar No. 27, made in 1889 by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) and given to the United States, which served as the standard for defining all units of length in the US from 1893 to 1960

  • Repsold

    Gravimeter with variant of Repsold-Bessel pendulum

  • GPS-IIR

    Artist's impression of a GPS-IIR satellite in orbit.

See also

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Metre Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.