How many centimetres is an inch?

Let’s suppose you want to buy TV set. We search the Internet to find a shop on line and you notice the size is expressed in inches. Then, suspicions are raised: will a TV set of 55 inches adapt my living room? Is it big? Is it small? What kind of a measure is it?

The roots of this measurement dates back to the Ancient Roman Empire and it is equivalent to the average width of a thumb. This measure had some obvious inconvenients since the width of thumbs is not the same for every Human Being. That’s why, in 1959, all the countries that used that measurement Unit such as The United States, Canada, The United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand agreed in establishing a connection between the inch and the centimetre.

How many centimetres is an inch equivalent to?

According to the agreement previously mentioned, it was established that an inch would equal 2.54 centimetres.

Is this measure used nowadays?

Yes, it is. All the previous mentioned countries still use this measure. Moreover, most of the electronic gadgets have their screens measured in inches. Thus, if you want to know the size of a TV set screen, of a computer monitor, of a Smartphone or of a tablet you will have to use a tape measure to measure the screen in its diagonal and then accomplish the corresponding conversion. Another situation where it is common to see a measure expressed in inches is the size of tyres. Both cars and bicycles have the size of their tyres calculated according to inches by measuring the diameter of the internal part of tyres.

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