A Word on Measurements


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Scientists and much of the world outside of the United States measure mass, length, and volume using the metric system. We will be using this system throughout the site.

Here is a list of metric measures to help those who are not familiar with this system.


Unit
Abbreviation
Description
meter
m
approximately three feet or one yard
centimeter
cm
1/100 of a meter, about half of an inch
millimeter
mm
1/1,000 of a meter
micrometer
µm
1/1,000,000 of a meter, often called a micron — most integrated circuits are at this scale
nanometer
nm
1/1,000,000,000 of a meter, the size of a single molecule