This resulted in the measurement of a foot varying between 250 mm and 335 mm in the past compared to the current definition of 304.8 mm. The various lengths were due to parts of the human body historically being used as a basis for units of length (such as the cubit, hand, span, digit, and many others, sometimes referred to as anthropic units). History/origin: Prior to standardization of units of measurement, and the definition of the foot currently in use, the measurement of the foot was used in many different systems including the Greek, Roman, English, Chinese, and French systems, varying in length between each. One foot contains 12 inches, and one yard is comprised of three feet. A foot was defined as exactly 0.3048 meters in 1959. Footĭefinition: A foot (symbol: ft) is a unit of length in the imperial and US customary systems of measurement. Height is commonly measured in centimeters outside of countries like the United States. Learning some of the more commonly used metric prefixes, such as kilo-, mega-, giga-, tera-, centi-, milli-, micro-, and nano-, can be helpful for quickly navigating metric units.Ĭurrent use: The centimeter, like the meter, is used in all sorts of applications worldwide (in countries that have undergone metrication) in instances where a smaller denomination of the meter is required. Metric prefixes range from factors of 10 -18 to 10 18 based on a decimal system, with the base (in this case the meter) having no prefix and having a factor of 1. History/origin: A centimeter is based on the SI unit meter, and as the prefix 'centi' indicates, is equal to one hundredth of a meter.

Definition: A centimeter (symbol: cm) is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), the current form of the metric system.

5 11 in cm