Kilometre
A
kilometre (
US spelling:
kilometer; symbol:
km) is a
unit of
length that is equal to 1,000
metres, the current
International System of Units (SI)
base unit of length. The kilometre is part of a
metric system. A corresponding unit of
area is the square kilometre and a corresponding unit of
volume is the cubic kilometre.
Slang terms for kilometre include "
klick" (sometimes spelt "click" or "klik") and "kay" (or "k"). These non-standard terms can also refer to
kilometres per hour, which itself is abbreviated as either km/h or kph.
In
English, the word "kilometre" is often pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, unlike other SI units (such as
kilogram) where the stress is placed on the first syllable.
hectometre << kilometre <<
megametre1 kilometre is equal to:
* 1,000
metres (1 metre is equal to 0.001 kilometres)
* about 0.621 statute
miles (1 statute mile is equal to about 1.609 kilometres)
* about 1,094 international
yards (1 international yard is equal to about 0.000914 kilometres)
* about 3,281
feet (1 foot is equal to about 0.000305 kilometres)
Virtually all countries of the world utilise the kilometre as a standard measure of distance, particularly on road network signage to indicate distances to cities, towns, villages and suburbs etc. The
USA is gradually kilometerising its road signage in many states. The main exception is the
UK, which has no intention of replacing the mile in the near future, a decision born mainly out of tradition. Aside from the UK, only
Liberia and
Myanmar (
Burma) continue to use the mile.
For the purposes of compatibility with
Chinese,
Japanese and
Korean (
CJK) characters,
Unicode has symbols for:
* kilometre (㎞) - code 339E
* square kilometre (㎢) - code 33A2
* cubic kilometre (㎦) - code 33A6
They are useful only with East Asian fixed-width
CJK fonts, because they are equal in size to one
Chinese character.
*
1 E3 m *
SI*
SI prefix*
Metric system*
Mile*
Verst*
Orders of magnitude*
Conversion of units, for comparison with other units of length
