Talk:Millimetre

This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

How do you convert the millimetre into inches?

One inch is 2.54 centimetres, and each centimetre has 10 millimetres. So therefore, 25.4 millimetres per inch. TehPoep 08:28, 9 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

That is, divide by 25.4. JIMp_talk·cont 03:57, 4 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Preferred spelling: Millimeter (7,560,000 hits) preferred over Millimetre (1,170,000 hits) by about 7 to 1.

Millimetre is a relatively uncommon spelling.

I'll add that ...meter is the official US standard spelling. It's not like it's some sort of rogue spelling. I recommend reconsideration of the default spelling. — fcsuper^{(How's That?, That's How!)} _{(Exclusionistic Immediatist )}— 03:14, 5 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, metre is the base unit, and it is spelled as it is because that's the spelling used in the International System of Units. It would be rather silly to change to use a spelling from one of the very few countries not to use the system.-gadfium 06:56, 5 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It wouldn't be silly at all. The official US spelling is meter (by law, so there is some official to this), and given the number of hits the different terms are getting, I'd say the users are voting as well. It's silly to dismiss these facts. — fcsuper^{(How's That?, That's How!)} _{(Exclusionistic Immediatist )}— 23:21, 20 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I would say in this case the number of google hits for "millimeter" is irrelevant. The metric system is more strongly associated with Commonwealth countries because it is the dominant measurement system in those countries, therefore Commonwealth spelling is most appropriate for Wikipedia articles on metric units. Wcp07 (talk) 08:10, 21 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, if the USA ever properly converts to the metric system, American editors may have a stronger position from which to argue, but as the country is staunchly resisting such change, to want to change the accepted international spelling in a system they are avoiding using is simply outrageous. HiLo48 (talk)

It'd be nice to have an opinion from someone who isn't so cynical about the states to begin with. WVI (talk) 09:42, 10 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There is nothing about the USA that is staunchly resisting anything. Free market forces dictate the rate of conversion. It should be noted that many European countries (including Britain and France) still use portions of the old Imperial standard themselves. It's not like the USA is the only one dragging its feet. All that aside, the point isn't so much who wants what, but what is verifiable (WP). By USA law, the USA is on the metric standard with the spelling of meter. Given this fact, the International English version of the word isn't any more preferred than the USA version. Both spellings have legit roots. That said, my vote would be to at least consider the meter spelling as the default. — fcsuper^{(How's That?, That's How!)} _{(Exclusionistic Immediatist )}— 08:15, 1 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Oh the irony. A bunch of people who don't want to use it telling the rest of the world how to spell it. I have heard it said more than once that Americans don't get irony. Let's give 'em a chance. HiLo48 (talk) 09:56, 1 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Let's please WP:FOC and set personal opinions aside. The facts have been presented above. Sources can be found to verify claims, including a multitude of dictionaries, laws, and other third party documents. — fcsuper^{(How's That?, That's How!)} _{(Exclusionistic Immediatist )}— 00:45, 2 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Information on conversion to inches needs to be in the first paragraph

The first question asking

"How do you convert the millimetre into inches?"

seeks the information sought by most English-speakers who access this article. For them, stating the conversion to inches is the simplest, clearest, most succinct explanation of the term.

The straightforward explanation kindly given in response should be added to the first paragraph of the article.

One inch is 2.54 centimetres, and each centimetre has 10 millimetres. So therefore, 25.4 millimetres per inch.

For the many who well-understand "inch" (179,000,000 hits) this conversion to inches is the first, the main, or the only explanation that they need.

A picture is needed

I was just about to add a picture to the right hand side, as I've seen in many Wikipedia articles but, as I read an article on adding images to Wikipedia I realized that you have to be a rocket scientist or no less than a genius to do so. So I'll just leave this here http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/royalty-free/42-21214121/ruler?popup=1&caller=enlargement

and hope that a rocket scientists adds it, or adds something better explaining the top as inches and CM and the bottom as MM.

)

I really think Wikipedia could and should make it a lot easier to add images and captions to articles. DiscoElf (talk) 00:14, 6 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The link you give doesn't work for me.-gadfium 00:43, 6 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

How about this one? --WikiMichi (talk) 23:31, 19 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Revocation of 19 November 2011

Please discuss these changes at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Measurement#Changes to the ledes of many SI-related articles. Martinvl (talk) 18:29, 19 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There was no discussion there specifically about the update I made to this article, so I've restored my edits as accurate and supported. If the discussion there does develop, and a consensus emerges which conflicts with the changes that I've made here, perhaps then would be the time to discuss the appropriate further changes to make here. -- de Facto (talk). 12:54, 21 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

physical science

How do you converted to millimeters to metres? Esinako (talk) 20:08, 18 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

To convert from millimetres to metres you divide by 1000, or equivalently, multiply by 0.001. This can be easily done by moving the decimal point 3 places to the left, adding leading zeros as required. So 3141.6 mm is 3.1416 m and 27 mm is 0.027 m.GrahamN-UK (talk) 10:48, 7 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Alternate shorter spelling

I hear sometimes that the long names of millimetre and centimetre are considered a burden by imperial users. In Turkish sometimes "milim" and "santim" ( "millim" and "centim" ? ) are used in daily speech. I'm not familiar with Wikipedia guidelines but maybe it can be added as a suggestion or just a note.

The abbreviations of mm and cm already exist. Blitterbug 20:02, 14 June 2018 (UTC)