How Does Units of Length - Centimetre Work?

A centimetre is like a tiny ruler you can use to measure small things around you, just like how your fingers help you count on your hands.

Imagine you have a pencil. If you place it next to a ruler, and it reaches from the 0 mark to the 10 mark, that means it’s 10 centimetres long, like having ten little finger widths lined up!

A centimetre is about as wide as your thumb. If you take a small eraser and lay it on a ruler, it might be about 2 or 3 centimetres long, just like how many of your thumbs could fit in that space.

When you use a ruler, each line represents one centimetre. If you're drawing a picture and want to make sure two things are the same size, you can measure them both using centimetres, it’s like counting steps on a little path from one end to the other.

You might even use centimetres when measuring your height or how long a book is, just like you count how many blocks tall something is!