Nanometers to Micrometers (nm to µm)

1 nanometer equals 0.001 micrometers exactly.

1 nanometer = 0.001 micrometers

How to convert nanometers to micrometers

To convert nanometers to micrometers, multiply the number of nanometers by 0.001. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply micrometers by 1,000.

micrometers = nanometers × 0.001

Example: 10 nanometers = 0.01 micrometers.

About these units

Nanometer (nm)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One billionth of a meter. Used for the wavelength of light (visible light is about 400–700 nm) and for chip feature sizes.

Greek for dwarf gave nano- its name, and the nanometer was once called something clumsier: the millimicrometre, or more often the millimicron, written mμ, since it is a thousandth of a micrometer. The prefix nano- was among those officially adopted when SI prefixes were first introduced in 1960, and the nanometer grew into the standard unit for optics and microelectronics. It sits a factor of ten above the older ångström, which is 0.1 nm and is still used for atomic distances.

Visible light spans roughly 400 to 700 nm, which is why color and spectroscopy are quoted this way. A helium atom is about 0.06 nm across and a ribosome about 20 nm. Chip makers have used nanometers since the late 1980s in names for manufacturing generations such as 32 nm and 22 nm. Those are labels for successive generations in the industry roadmap, and they describe typical feature sizes rather than one exact measurement. Readers should also beware that nm is sometimes written informally for the nautical mile.

1 nanometer = 1×10⁻⁹ meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Nanometre; Wikipedia: Metric prefix; Wikipedia: Nautical mile

Micrometer (µm)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One millionth of a meter, also called a micron. Typical bacteria are a few micrometers long; a human hair is roughly 70 µm thick.

Two names, micron and micrometer, have shared this unit for more than a century. The prefix micro- was adopted in 1873 alongside the CGS system, and in 1879 the term micron and the symbol μ were officially accepted for the micrometer when used on its own. That created a clash once SI came along: μ was also the symbol for the prefix micro-. The 13th CGPM revoked micron and its symbol in 1967 to 1968, leaving micrometer and μm as the official name and symbol, though micron lives on in everyday speech.

A micrometer is a thousandth of a millimeter, and it is the natural scale for biology and filtration. A typical red blood cell is 6 to 8 μm across, a bacterium is 1 to 10 μm long, and a fog droplet is around 10 μm. Human hair ranges from about 17 to 181 μm in diameter, and paper is 70 to 180 μm thick. Infrared radiation is measured in micrometers of wavelength, and wool is graded by fibre width. Some American writers keep micron because micrometer also names the caliper-style measuring tool.

1 micrometer = 0.000001 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Micrometre; Wikipedia: Metric prefix

Related conversions

See all length units.