How do I convert centimeters to microns?
A centimetre holds 10,000 microns, so multiply by 10,000. A micron is a micrometre, a millionth of a metre.
0.5 cm is 5,000 µm. Going smaller, 0.001 cm is 10 µm – the particle size behind the PM10 figure in air-quality reports.
Micron stopped being an official SI name in 1967, replaced by micrometre, but it hangs on in filter ratings.
What is a centimeter?
A centimeter (cm) is one hundredth of a meter and just under four tenths of an inch (0.3937 inches). The prefix comes from the Latin centum, a hundred.
Divide centimeters by 30.48 to get feet, or multiply feet by 30.48 to get centimeters. The factor is exact, as a foot is 30.48cm, and a single centimeter is about 0.0328 feet.
The centimeter was the base unit of length in the CGS (centimeter, gram, second) system that physicists used before SI, which is why older physics talks about dynes and ergs.
What is a micron?
A micron is one millionth of a meter, or 0.000001 meters. Its symbol is µm, the Greek letter mu followed by m.
'Micron' is the older name for the micrometer, and the SI dropped it in 1967. It survives on filter ratings anyway – a 5 micron filter catches particles down to about 5 micrometers.