Micrometre

The micrometre (Commonwealth English) as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American English), also commonly known by the non-SI term micron, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI) equalling 1×10−6 metre (SI standard prefix "micro-" = 10−6); that is, one millionth of a metre (or one thousandth of a millimetre, 0.001 mm, or about 0.00004 inch).

"Micron" redirects here. For other uses, see Micron (disambiguation).
"Microscale" redirects here. For other uses, see Microscale (disambiguation).
For the measuring instrument, see Micrometer (device). For the unit of molar concentration, μM (micromolar), see Molar concentration.

micrometre
A 6 μm diameter carbon filament above a 50 μm diameter human hair
General information
Unit systemSI
Unit oflength
Symbolμm
Conversions
1 μm in ...... is equal to ...
   SI base units   10−6 m
   Natural units   1.8897×104 a0
   imperial/US units   3.9370×10−5 in

The nearest smaller common SI unit is the nanometre, equivalent to one thousandth of a micrometre, one millionth of a millimetre or one billionth of a metre (0.000000001 m).

The micrometre is a common unit of measurement for wavelengths of infrared radiation as well as sizes of biological cells and bacteria, and for grading wool by the diameter of the fibres. The width of a single human hair ranges from approximately 20 to 200 μm.

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