Centimeters to Varas (cm to vara)

1 centimeter equals 0.01196315349 varas (rounded).

1 centimeter = 0.01196315349 varas

How to convert centimeters to varas

To convert centimeters to varas, multiply the number of centimeters by 0.01196315349. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply varas by 83.59.

varas = centimeters × 0.01196315349

Example: 10 centimeters = 0.1196315349 varas.

Approximate value. Standards for the vara (Castilian) varied by place and period, so this converter uses the most commonly cited value. Treat results as estimates, not exact figures.

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

Vara (Castilian) (vara)

Spanish & PortugueseHistorical unit (no longer in standard use)Approximate value

The Castilian vara, about 83.59 cm (3 pies). Regional varas differed; the Texas vara of 33⅓ inches (84.67 cm) is still found in old land grants.

Vara means rod or staff. The Texas State Historical Association traces the word to a Latin term for a long, straight branch, which became a lance and then the staff of office carried by mayors and judges. Because that staff was used for checking cloth and land, the name passed to the measuring stick and then to the unit itself.

Across Spain the vara varied from city to city, from about 0.77 m in Huesca to roughly 1.56 m in Barcelona. The Castilian standard, fixed by law in 1801 at three pies, is about 835.9 mm, and the figure used here is 0.8359 m. The pie of about 278.6 mm was the base, with the paso equal to five pies and the league defined as 6,666 and two thirds varas.

Spanish settlers carried the unit overseas. California commonly treated the vara as 33 inches, Argentina used about 866 mm, and Texas defined it as 33 and one third inches, or 846.67 mm. Land grants in Texas were surveyed in varas, so deeds from the nineteenth and even the twentieth century still quote them. A vara is a little shorter than a modern yard.

1 vara (Castilian) = 0.8359 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Vara (unit); Texas State Historical Association: Vara; Wikipedia: Spanish customary units

Related conversions

See all length units.