Measurement of Length

Measurement of length: Different types of lengths are measured by using different types of instruments. Lengths like the length of cloth or length of a line can be measured by using measuring tape, a metre scale or a foot rule. But these instruments cannot be used to measure the diameter of a metal sphere or a cylinder. To measure the diameter of a cylinder we can use paper strip method and wooden block method:

(i) Length is a measurement of distance or dimension. The two main systems to measure length are the metric and the English system. The metric system is based on 10 as you can see in the table above. The meter is the standard unit and portions of that are in tens. You can see the difference between a centimeter and a millimeter in the picture below. Always read a ruler in a direct line, not at an angle.

Conversion Chart

1 centimeter = 0.3937 inches
12 inches = 1 foot
1 inch = 2.54 centimeters
1 foot = 0.3048 meters
3 feet = 1 yard
1760 feet = 1 mile
5280 feet = 1 mile
1 yard = 0.9144 meters
1 meter = 3.28083 feet
1 kilometer = 3281 feet
1 kilometer = 0.6214 miles
3 miles = 1 league