Measuring Length -1

● What is Length?

Length is the term used for identifying the size of an object

or distance from one point to Length is a measure of how
long an object is or the distance between two points.

It is used for identifying the size of an object or distance

from one point to another. The length of an object is its
extended dimension, that is, its longest side.

For example, the length of the ruler in the picture is 15 cm.

Here, the arrow above the ruler denotes the length of the
ruler as it is the longest side of the ruler.

Some more examples:

length example 1

The given image is of a rectangle, and for every rectangle,

the length is longer than its breadth.
length example 2

Tools for measuring the length

● Different units of length

The standard unit of length based on the metric system is a

meter (m). According to the length that needs to be
measured, we can convert a meter into various units like
millimeters (mm), centimeter (cm), and kilometer (km).

Centimeters and millimeters help measure smaller lengths

and meters and kilometers help measure larger lengths like
distance. For example, the length of the pencils can be
calculated in centimeters (cm), while kilometers can
measure the distance between two buildings or places.
One hundred equal divisions of a meter give a centimeter.
It is written as ‘cm’. That is,

1 m = 100 cm

One thousand equal divisions of kilometer give a meter.

That is,

1 km = 1,000 m

According to the length conversion charts, the different

units of lengths and their equivalents are given below:

A kilometer (km), meter (m), and centimeter (cm) are the

commonly used units of length.

Conversion of these units is done using the given formula.

conversion formula

Additionally, in the customary system (followed in the

United States) inches, feet, yards, and miles are used as the
unit for length.

The relation between the customary units is given below:

relation between the customary units

Metric system and customary system

With the assortment of various units, the metric system

seems quite a logical system as compared to the
customary system and converting units in the metric
system is much simpler than converting them in the
customary system.

The United States is the last remaining nation, which is still

to adopt the metric system. However, it is easy to convert
units in metric to the customary system by using the given
conversion.

1 meter (m) = 39.4 inches = 1.09 yards;

1 yard = 0.92 m

1 centimeter (cm) = 0.39 inches;

1 inch = 2.54 cm

● Fun Facts about lengths

The word length comes from middle English 'lengths’ and
from old English ‘lengðu’ which means — property of being
long or extended in one direction.

The metric system of measuring length was first adopted in

France and is currently used by around 95% of the world
population.