Kilometer to Meter Converter

About this conversion

The kilometer (km) is a unit of length in the metric (SI), commonly used for road and highway distances and geographic measurements. The meter (m) belongs to the metric (SI) and is typically found in measurements related to room and building dimensions and swimming pool lengths. By definition, one kilometer is one thousand meters. One meter is the base unit of length in the International System of Units, defined as the distance light travels in 1/299,792,458 of a second. The conversion factor between these two units is 1000: multiplying any value in km by this number gives the equivalent in m. For example, 10 km equals 10000.0000 m. Going the other direction, 1 m equals 0.001 km. Adopted alongside the metric system, the kilometer became the standard unit for land distance in most countries by the 20th century. The meter was originally defined in 1793 as one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole.