Convert Centimeters to Inches

Centimeter - A centimetre (American spelling: centimeter, symbol cm) is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one hundredth of a metre, which is the current SI base unit of length. Centi is the SI prefix for a factor of 10-2. Hence a centimetre can be written as 10 x 1003 m (engineering notation) or 1E-2 m (scientific E notation) - meaning 10 x 101 mm or 1 m/100 respectively, centimetre-gram-second system of units.

Though for many physical quantities, SI prefixes 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 adult person.

Inch - An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes, " - a double prime) is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including Imperial units, and United States customary units. There are 36 inches in a yard and 12 inches in a foot. A corresponding unit of area is the square inch and a corresponding unit of volume is the cubic inch. The inch is usually the universal unit of measurement in the United States, and is widely used in the United Kingdom, and Canada, despite the introduction of metric to the latter two in the 1960s and 1970s, respectively. The inch is still commonly used informally, although somewhat less, in other Commonwealth nations such as Australia; an example being the long standing tradition of measuring the height of newborn children in inches rather than centimetres.

Effective July 1, 1959, the United States and countries of the British Commonwealth defined the length of the international yard to be 0.9144 meters. Consequently, the international inch is defined to be equal to 25.4 millimeters. The international standard symbol for inch is in (see ISO 31-1, Annex A). In some cases, the inch is denoted by a double prime, which is often approximated by double quotes, and the foot by a prime, which is often approximated by an apostrophe.