Convert kilometers to meter

Symbol

Kilometer is frequently represented by the symbol ‘km’. In the US, UK, and Canadian militaries, the word "klick" is a slang term of the kilometer.

Description

Kilometer is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). It is equal to one thousand meters. The kilometer is the preferred measurement unit to express distances between geographical places on land in most of the world. The United States and the United Kingdom are the notable exceptions where the statute mile is used.

A kilometer is equivalent to one thousand meters. So, one kilometer can be written in scientific notations as 1×10^3 m (engineering notation) or 1 E+3 m (exponential notation) — both meaning 10^3 × 1 m.

There are 0.621 statute miles in a kilometer. This means 1 statute mile is equivalent to 1.60934 kilometers. So to convert mile to km, multiply the mile with 0.621.

A kilometer is also equivalent to 3281 feet. In reverse, 1 foot equals 1/3281 kilometers. For calculation of km to yd (kilometer to yards), remember that there are 1094 international yards in a kilometer. If you want to convert nautical miles to km, then multiply kilometer value by 0.540.

History

The term kilometer was first used in the 1800s. It was introduced during the development and adoption of the metric system of weights and measures in France in the late 1700s.

The term "myriamètre"(preferring 10,000 meters) was used several times in 1802. It was used in the text of Develey's book Physique d'Emile: ou, Principes de la science de la nature.

It was first recorded as "kilometer' in 1800-1810. In 1835, French maps were published in which scales are shown in kilometers. The term "kilometer" first became an official unit in 1867  in the Netherlands representing 1000 meters.

Finally, the prefix "myria-" and the associated "myriametre" were officially removed by the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) in 1935, designating the term "kilometer" as the accepted unit of length for measurements.

Use

This is the go-to unit for expressing land distances, road length etc. 

Symbol

The meter is represented by the symbol ‘m’.

Description

Meter is the base unit of length in the SI system (International System of Units). The term meter was originally derived from the Greek words "metreo" (verb form) and "metron" (noun form) meaning "measure”.

The length of the path that light takes in the vacuum in 1/299792458 seconds was the official definition of a meter from 1983 to 2019. As of 2019, the meter has been redefined as the length of the path traveled by light in a vacuum during a time interval of 1/299792458 of a second where a caesium hyperfine transition frequency defines the second.

Hence, the difference between the old and new definitions of meter is the addition of the definition of the second. However, interestingly the definition of the meter fixes the speed of light in a vacuum to the exact value of 299,792,458 m/s. 

Meters can be changed to other SI units using prefix multipliers based on powers of ten. For example, a meter consists of 100 centimeters, and one thousand meters equals a kilometer.

To convert m to in (meter to inches), you will need to multiplu the meter by 39.37 since  a meter equals 39.37 inches. Let's talk about large unites and how meter looks in comparison to them. 1609 meters is equivalent to a statute mile. 

History

The French first used the unit meter in the late 1700s. On March 30, 1791, the French Academy of Sciences specified the length of a meter. 

However, it was officially defined in 1799. In 1983, the meter was defined as it is measured now. But in 2019, the addition of the definition of second was added to it to reducec uncertainity.

The English word 'metre' was first used at the beginning of 1797. It was first measured with an interferometer by Albert A. Michelson in 1893.

Use

Meter is used for length, height, width and thickness measurement of objects in countries that follow SI units. However, in the states it is not used commonly.