A 'megametre' (
American spelling: 'megameter', symbol 'Mm') is a
unit of
length in the
metric system, equal to one million
metres, the current
SI base unit of length, hence to 1,000
km or customary equivalent to 621.37
miles. It can be written in
scientific notations as 1×10
6 m (engineering notation) or 1 E+6 m (exponential notation) — both meaning 1,000,000 × 1 m.
nanometre <<<
micrometre <<<
millimetre <
centimetre <
decimetre <
metre <
decametre <
hectometre <
kilometre <<<
megametre <<<
gigametre
Megametres (from the
Greek words ''megas'' = big and ''metro'' = count/measure) are rarely seen in practical use, because they are too big for most terrestrial tasks. Their symbol (Mm) can also be easily confused with
millimetres (mm). Still there are a number of "megametre fans". Megametres are also occasionally found in
science fiction.
★ The
Earth's polar
circumference is 39.94 Mm. (It was
★ exactly
★ 40.00 Mm from 1791 to 1875; see
metre).
★ The distance from
Amsterdam to
Bordeaux is approximately 1 Mm.
★ The
Earth's
equatorial
diameter is 12.76 Mm.
★ The mean distance from the
Earth to the
Moon is 384.4 Mm.
★
Jupiter's
equatorial
diameter is 143 Mm.
★
Quebec province's total
area is 1,542 Mm².
See also
★
1 E+6 m
★
SI
★
SI prefix
★
Metric system
★
Orders of magnitude (length)
★
Conversion of units, for comparison with other units of length
★
light year
★
parsec
----
''A 'megameter' is also a type of
astrometrical instrument used for determining
longitude by observation of the
stars.''