Distance measures length. For example, the distance of a road is how long the road is. In the metric system of measurement, the most common units of distance are millimeters, centimeters, meters, and kilometers.
What Is Distance Measured In?
There are a variety of units for measuring distance, but the most common unit in the English–speaking world is the “mile.” In the United States, the statute mile is 5,280 feet, or 1,760 yards. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, and most of the Commonwealth, the mile is 1,853.1 meters.
Other units of measure for distance include the kilometer, which is 1,000 meters, or 3,281 feet; the decameter, which is 10 meters, or 32.8 feet; the centimeter, which is 1/100 of a meter, or 0.394 inches;
and the millimeter, which is 1/1,000 of a meter, or 0.0394 inches. There are also a variety of units for measuring long distances, such as the light–year, which is the distance that light travels in one year, or about 5.88 trillion miles;
the astronomical unit, which is the average distance from the Earth to the sun, or about 93 million miles; and the parsec, which is about 3.26 light–years, or about 19 trillion miles.
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