{"id":6677,"date":"2017-03-01T18:36:28","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T18:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrsphysics.co.uk\/blog\/?p=396"},"modified":"2025-11-28T16:45:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T16:45:24","slug":"converting-between-metres-and-centimetres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/index.php\/2017\/03\/01\/converting-between-metres-and-centimetres\/","title":{"rendered":"Converting metres &#038; centimetres, length, area and volume"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many people incorrectly assume that as there are 100 cm in a metre then there must also be 100 cm<sup>2<\/sup> in 1 m<sup>2<\/sup> and 100 cm<sup>3<\/sup> and 1 m<sup>3<\/sup>. Working through the pictures below should convince you that there are:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>100 cm in 1 m but<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> 10,000 cm<sup>2<\/sup> in 1 m<sup>2<\/sup><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> and 1,000,000 cm<sup>3<\/sup> in 1 m<sup>3<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Length<\/h3>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-398\" src=\"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/1m-300x111.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"111\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/1m-300x111.png 300w, https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/1m-10x4.png 10w, https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/1m.png 344w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>1 m = 100 cm<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-400\" src=\"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/100-cm-300x100.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"100\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Area<\/h3>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-399\" src=\"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/1m2-300x277.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"277\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/1m2-300x277.png 300w, https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/1m2-10x10.png 10w, https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/1m2.png 398w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>1 m<sup>2<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 = 100 \u00d7 100 = 10 000 cm<sup>2<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 = 10<sup>4<\/sup> cm<sup>2<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-401\" src=\"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/100-cm2-300x247.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"247\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Volume<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-402\" src=\"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/1m3-300x277.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"277\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>1 m<sup><span style=\"font-size: small;\">3<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 =\u00a0 100 \u00d7 100 \u00d7 100 = 1 000 000 cm<sup><span style=\"font-size: small;\">3<\/span><\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 = 10<sup><span style=\"font-size: small;\">6<\/span><\/sup> cm<sup><span style=\"font-size: small;\">3<\/span><\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-403\" src=\"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/100-cm3-300x282.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"282\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>one litre = 1000 cm<sup>3<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>1 l = 1000 cm<sup>3<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>1 m<sup>3<\/sup> = 1000 l<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Now read this post in conjunction with the one on units for area and volume! The units for <strong>area<\/strong> are <strong>square metres<\/strong> and the units for <strong>volume<\/strong> are <strong>cubic metres<\/strong>. Don&#8217;t confuse either of these with metres square or metres cubed!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e1515b0c027eaeaaa7232dae92981146?s=80\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-172\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mrsphysics.co.uk\/bge\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Signature-300x54.png\" alt=\"Signature\" width=\"127\" height=\"23\" \/><\/p>\n<hr style=\"line-height: 1.75;\" \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many people incorrectly assume that as there are 100 cm in a metre then there must also be 100 cm2 in 1 m2 and 100 cm3 and 1 m3. Working through the pictures below should convince you that there are: 100 cm in 1 m but 10,000 cm2 in 1 m2 and 1,000,000 cm3 in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1295,1293],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[1267],"class_list":["post-6677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogmath","category-physics-notes-blog","vs-blog blog-single wow fadeInUp"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":1267,"user_id":3,"is_guest":0,"slug":"n5","display_name":"Mrs Physics","avatar_url":"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/OK-scaled.png","author_category":"","first_name":"Mrs","last_name":"Physics","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8409,"href":"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6677\/revisions\/8409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6677"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrsphysics.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=6677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}