Centimeters to Fen (Chinese) (cm to fen)

1 centimeter equals 3 fen (Chinese) exactly.

1 centimeter = 3 fen (Chinese)

How to convert centimeters to fen (Chinese)

To convert centimeters to fen (Chinese), multiply the number of centimeters by 3. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply fen (Chinese) by 0.3333333333 (rounded).

fen (Chinese) = centimeters × 3

Example: 10 centimeters = 30 fen (Chinese).

About these units

Centimeter (cm)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One hundredth of a meter. Used for body measurements, clothing and everyday objects.

Scientists, rather than shopkeepers, gave the centimeter its place. In 1832 Carl Friedrich Gauss proposed a system of absolute units built on length, mass and time, choosing the millimeter, milligram and second. In 1873 a committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, whose members included James Clerk Maxwell and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), recommended the centimeter, gram and second instead. That CGS system dominated physics for decades, until the metre-kilogram-second system replaced it in the mid-twentieth century and led to SI.

CGS units proved awkward for rooms and buildings, which run to hundreds of centimeters, but the centimeter itself never went away. It is still the everyday unit for height, clothing and small objects, and it appears in map scales and rainfall reports. An adult fingernail is roughly one centimeter wide, and a milliliter is defined as exactly one cubic centimeter. An inch is exactly 2.54 centimeters. The CGS system itself survives mainly in theoretical physics and astrophysics, where Gaussian units are still common.

1 centimeter = 0.01 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Centimetre-gram-second system of units; Wikipedia: Centimetre; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors

Fen (Chinese) (fen)

ChineseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

One tenth of a cun in the modern market system, 1/300 m (about 3.3 mm).

Smallest of the everyday Chinese length units, the fen shares its character with the ordinary word for a part or a share, which suits a unit defined as one hundredth of a chi. Older descriptions tie its size to the width of a grain of millet, so it was never a fixed physical quantity in antiquity. It had little use for long distances and appeared mainly in carpentry, tailoring and the fine measurements of craftsmen.

In the modern market system the chi is exactly one third of a meter, which makes the fen one three hundredth of a meter, about 3.33 millimeters. It sits below the cun, and ten fen make one cun. Because ancient chi were far shorter than today's, ancient fen were correspondingly smaller. A separate Chinese fen also exists as a mass unit, and the same word was borrowed for fractions of other quantities, so context matters when the term appears.

1 fen (Chinese) = 0.003333333333 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Chinese units of measurement; Wikipedia: Cun (unit)

Related conversions

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