inches to cm | inches to centimeters (in to cm)

Calculator Use

Convert Imperial and US units of inches to metric units of centimeters. The inches symbols are in or " and the centimeters symbol is cm.

1 inch is equal to 2.54 centimeters. For conversions of units we say that there are 2.54 centimeters per inch and write it as 2.54 cm/in. To convert from inches to centimeters, multiply in units by 2.54 cm/in. Inches (in) will cancel, and we are left with centimeters (cm) units in the answer.

How to Convert inches (in) to centimeters (cm)

Example: 5 inches to cm conversion.

1. Identify the unit conversion ratio for in to cm
   • Use the known equality:
     1 in = 2.54 cm
   • Divide both sides by inches to find the conversion ratio,
     2.54 cm / 1 in = 1
2. Multiply inches by the conversion ratio and cancel units to convert the value to cm
   • 5 in × 2.54 cm / 1 in = (5 × 2.54) cm = 12.7 cm

For quick conversions multiply by 2.54
in × 2.54 = cm

Centimeter or Centimetre

A centimeter is a unit of length and has the symbol cm. The spelling centimeter is American while centimetre is the international spelling used by many other countries. The centimeter is a unit of length in the International System of Units where the meter (m) is the base unit of length. The prefix "centi" means one hundreth and combined with the base unit "meter" means one hundreth of a meter. Therefore, one centimeter is equivalent to 1/100th of a meter or 0.01 meters. 1 inch is equal to exactly 2.54 centimeters. Therefore, 1 centimeter is equal to exactly 1/2.54 inches which is approximately 0.3937 inches.

Inch

An inch is a unit of length and has the symbol in or ". Five inches can be expressed as either 5 in or 5". The inch is a unit of length in the British imperial system of units, United States customary units and Canadian Units of Measurement where there are 12 inches in 1 foot and 36 inches in 1 yard. Converting to the metric system, 1 inch is exactly 25.4 millimeters (mm), 2.54 centimeters (cm), 0.254 decimeters (dm) and 0.0254 meters (m).

References/ Further Reading

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (2022) - 'METRIC (SI) PROGRAM: Unit Conversion'. Available at https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/metric-si/unit-conversion