Centimeters to Shaku (cm to shaku)

1 centimeter equals 0.033 shaku exactly.

1 centimeter = 0.033 shaku

How to convert centimeters to shaku

To convert centimeters to shaku, multiply the number of centimeters by 0.033. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply shaku by 30.3030303 (rounded).

shaku = centimeters × 0.033

Example: 10 centimeters = 0.33 shaku.

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

Shaku (shaku)

JapaneseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

The Japanese foot, defined as exactly 10/33 meter (about 30.3 cm). Still the basis of carpentry and building dimensions in Japan.

Shaku is the Japanese reading of the character for chi, the Chinese foot, which began as a hand span from thumb tip to fingertip. Japan adopted the Chinese measuring system around the year 701, and the shaku became its basic length, growing over the centuries to roughly a third of a meter.

Several versions coexisted. The ordinary carpenter's shaku, the kanejaku, was about 30.2 to 30.3 centimeters. A longer kujirajaku, used for cloth and said to have been marked on whale baleen, measured 125/330 meter, near 37.9 centimeters. A longer variant, the korai-shaku, was about 1.17 times the modern value, about 35.5 centimeters.

The Weights and Measures Act of 24 March 1891 ended the variation for the standard unit by defining it as exactly 10/33 meter, about 30.3 centimeters or 11.93 inches. Official use was banned in 1966, yet the shaku still sets building dimensions: a standard three shaku panel is rounded to 910 millimeters.

1 shaku = 0.303030303 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Shaku (unit); Wikipedia: Japanese units of measurement; Japanese Wikipedia: Shakkanho (尺貫法)

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