mm to m Conversion -
m to mm Conversion

Convert millimeter to meter and vice versa

Millimeter and Meter

The millimeter and the meter are both units of length in the international system of units (SI). The meter is the base measure for length in the SI system, while the millimeter is a derivative of the meter.

Origin and usage

The meter was originally defined as 1/10,000,000th of the distance from the North Pole to the equator along the meridian that passes through Paris. Now, however, the meter is defined as the length of the path traveled by light in a vacuum during a time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second.

A millimeter (mm), which literally means 'a thousandth of a meter', is a unit of length that is commonly used in many aspects of everyday life and in the industry. Examples of objects that typically have a size of a few millimeters are a grain of rice or the thickness of a credit card.

Ratio and conversion factor

There are 1000 millimeters in a meter. This is due to the prefixes in the SI system, which work with factors of 10. So, to go from meter to millimeter, you multiply by 1000.

1 meter = 1000 millimeters

Conversely, to go from millimeter to meter, you divide by 1000.

1 millimeter = 0.001 meter

Examples

An example of an object that is about a meter long is an adult guitar. An example of an object that is about a millimeter is a pinhead.

Other units

Other derivative units of the meter include the centimeter (1/100 of a meter), the decimeter (1/10 of a meter), the kilometer (1000 meters), and the micrometer (1/1,000,000 of a meter). Each of these units is used depending on the specific field of application to make more convenient and understandable measurements.

For example, in cartography and road measurements, the kilometer is widely used, while the millimeter and the micrometer are used in precise technical drawings and in microscopy.