Convert kilometers to centimeters
Enter a value in kilometers and read the result in centimeters. A kilometer is 100,000 centimeters, so 2 km gives 200,000 cm. Below there is a table of ready conversions with scientific notation, plus the map scales that tell you how much paper one kilometer takes up.
What is a kilometer, and what is a centimeter?
Both units come from the meter, and only the SI prefix separates them. The prefix kilo- means a factor of one thousand, and the prefix centi- means one hundredth[1]. A kilometer is therefore 1,000 meters, and a centimeter is one hundredth of a meter.
Five steps of ten sit between them: centimeter, decimeter, meter, dekameter, hectometer, kilometer. Those five steps are where the factor of 100,000 comes from, which is the five zeros you add to a figure in kilometers.
The centimeter also holds a place of its own in science: it is the base unit of length in the now deprecated centimeter–gram–second (CGS) system[2]. In everyday use it is the unit human height is commonly measured in[2].
Which unit you pick follows the size of the thing you are measuring. Centimeters cover height, furniture and paper sizes. Kilometers take over where the same numbers would run too long: driving routes, race distances and the gap between two towns.
How many centimeters are in a kilometer?
A kilometer is 100,000 centimeters. Two kilometers work out at 200,000 centimeters. Half a kilometer is 50,000 centimeters.
Every conversion in this direction comes down to multiplying the number of kilometers by one hundred thousand. A quarter of a kilometer gives 25,000 centimeters. Five kilometers is 500,000 centimeters. Ten kilometers gives 1,000,000 centimeters, a round million.
For whole kilometers the result ends in the five zeros you add to their number, so those values you can do in your head. Three quarters of a kilometer is 75,000 centimeters. Eight tenths of a kilometer, that is 800 meters, gives 80,000 centimeters.
Written as a power of ten the same figure is far shorter. One kilometer is 1 × 10⁵ cm, and ten kilometers is 1 × 10⁶ cm. That notation earns its place once the zeros pile up enough to be worth replacing with the exponent.
The converter above works in both directions and shows the result as you type, so none of these figures has to be memorized.
How do you convert kilometers to centimeters? Formula and example
The conversion rests on a fixed relationship: one kilometer is 100,000 centimeters. To turn kilometers into centimeters you multiply their number by one hundred thousand.
The full formula: centimeters = kilometers × 100,000. The other way round: kilometers = centimeters ÷ 100,000.
Three examples of different sizes come out of that formula. Three kilometers multiplied by one hundred thousand gives 300,000 centimeters. One tenth of a kilometer, that is one hundred meters, comes to 10,000 centimeters. A marathon measures 42.195 kilometers, so multiplying gives 4,219,500 centimeters.
On paper the multiplication is a single move. The digits stay as they are and the decimal point travels five places to the right. From 1.5 kilometers you get 150,000 centimeters, and from 0.025 kilometers you get 2,500 centimeters. Fill any gap the point leaves behind with zeros.
In the other direction the operation is reversed: you divide by one hundred thousand and the point travels five places to the left. That is what the centimeters to kilometers converter does. If your value is written in meters, the meters to centimeters converter takes it from there.
How many centimeters does a given number of kilometers make?
| Kilometers | Centimeters | Scientific notation |
|---|---|---|
| 0.001 km | 100 cm | 1 × 10² cm |
| 0.01 km | 1,000 cm | 1 × 10³ cm |
| 0.02 km | 2,000 cm | 2 × 10³ cm |
| 0.025 km | 2,500 cm | 2.5 × 10³ cm |
| 0.05 km | 5,000 cm | 5 × 10³ cm |
| 0.1 km | 10,000 cm | 1 × 10⁴ cm |
| 0.25 km | 25,000 cm | 2.5 × 10⁴ cm |
| 0.5 km | 50,000 cm | 5 × 10⁴ cm |
| 0.65 km | 65,000 cm | 6.5 × 10⁴ cm |
| 0.75 km | 75,000 cm | 7.5 × 10⁴ cm |
| 0.8 km | 80,000 cm | 8 × 10⁴ cm |
| 1 km | 100,000 cm | 1 × 10⁵ cm |
| 1.2 km | 120,000 cm | 1.2 × 10⁵ cm |
| 1.5 km | 150,000 cm | 1.5 × 10⁵ cm |
| 1.8 km | 180,000 cm | 1.8 × 10⁵ cm |
| 2 km | 200,000 cm | 2 × 10⁵ cm |
| 2.5 km | 250,000 cm | 2.5 × 10⁵ cm |
| 2.9 km | 290,000 cm | 2.9 × 10⁵ cm |
| 3 km | 300,000 cm | 3 × 10⁵ cm |
| 3.2 km | 320,000 cm | 3.2 × 10⁵ cm |
| 3.7 km | 370,000 cm | 3.7 × 10⁵ cm |
| 4 km | 400,000 cm | 4 × 10⁵ cm |
| 4.5 km | 450,000 cm | 4.5 × 10⁵ cm |
| 5 km | 500,000 cm | 5 × 10⁵ cm |
| 6 km | 600,000 cm | 6 × 10⁵ cm |
| 8 km | 800,000 cm | 8 × 10⁵ cm |
| 10 km | 1,000,000 cm | 1 × 10⁶ cm |
| 15 km | 1,500,000 cm | 1.5 × 10⁶ cm |
| 20 km | 2,000,000 cm | 2 × 10⁶ cm |
| 25 km | 2,500,000 cm | 2.5 × 10⁶ cm |
| 30 km | 3,000,000 cm | 3 × 10⁶ cm |
| 40 km | 4,000,000 cm | 4 × 10⁶ cm |
| 50 km | 5,000,000 cm | 5 × 10⁶ cm |
| 100 km | 10,000,000 cm | 1 × 10⁷ cm |
| 500 km | 50,000,000 cm | 5 × 10⁷ cm |
| 1,000 km | 100,000,000 cm | 1 × 10⁸ cm |
How many centimeters on the map make one kilometer on the ground?
| Map scale | One kilometer on the map | Where you meet this scale |
|---|---|---|
| 1:5,000 | 20 cm | Cadastral and planning maps |
| 1:10,000 | 10 cm | Large-scale urban mapping |
| 1:24,000 | 4.1667 cm | USGS US Topo quadrangles across the United States |
| 1:25,000 | 4 cm | OS Explorer walking maps in Great Britain |
| 1:50,000 | 2 cm | OS Landranger maps covering a whole region |
| 1:100,000 | 1 cm | County and cycling maps |
| 1:200,000 | 0.5 cm | State and county overview maps |
| 1:500,000 | 0.2 cm | Country-wide driving maps |
| 1:1,000,000 | 0.1 cm | Overview maps and atlases |
How many centimeters does each unit of the metric ladder hold?
| Unit | Symbol | Centimeters | Kilometers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Millimeter | mm | 0.1 cm | 0.000001 km |
| Centimeter | cm | 1 cm | 0.00001 km |
| Decimeter | dm | 10 cm | 0.0001 km |
| Meter | m | 100 cm | 0.001 km |
| Dekameter | dam | 1,000 cm | 0.01 km |
| Hectometer | hm | 10,000 cm | 0.1 km |
| Kilometer | km | 100,000 cm | 1 km |
How do you convert kilometers to centimeters in a spreadsheet?
For a single value the field above is quicker, but for a whole column of distances the spreadsheet does it with one formula dragged downwards.
Excel: the CONVERT function
The syntax is CONVERT(number, from_unit, to_unit). The kilometer is written "km" and the centimeter "cm", so for a value in cell A1 the formula reads =CONVERT(A1,"km","cm"). The prefixes k and c may be put in front of any metric unit argument[5].Plain multiplication, if you would rather skip the function
The formula =A1*100000 gives the same result and works in every spreadsheet, including Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc. Once the values run past a few kilometers, turn on the thousands separator so that 500000 shows up as 500,000.Scientific notation instead of a long run of zeros
When the centimeter figure stops fitting the column, select the cells and in Excel go to the Home tab, in the Number group, and pick Scientific from the number format list. The sheet then shows 1.00E+05 instead of 100,000, which is the same value written as a power of ten[6].Check the result on a single cell
Before you drag the formula down the whole column, type 1.5 into cell A1 and check that the result reads 150,000. A #VALUE! message where the result should be means Excel does not read the content of cell A1 as a number, for example when a unit has been typed next to the value. Leave just the number in the cell[5].
Convert other units to Centimeters
Convert Kilometers to other units
Sources
- SI prefixes — Bureau International des Poids et Mesures
- Centimetre — Wikipedia
- US Topo: Maps for America — U.S. Geological Survey
- A Beginner’s Guide to Map Scales — Ordnance Survey
- CONVERT function — Microsoft
- Display numbers in scientific (exponential) notation — Microsoft
Every figure in the tables was computed from the unit definitions and checked arithmetically before publication. Historical values and the names of local units come from the sources listed above.
Content last reviewed: · written and checked by the Arteon team
Common questions about converting kilometers to centimeters
How many centimeters are in 1 kilometer?
A kilometer is 100,000 centimeters. The figure comes from two prefixes at once: kilo- is a factor of one thousand and centi- is one hundredth, so a kilometer holds one thousand meters of one hundred centimeters each.
How many centimeters are in half a kilometer?
Half a kilometer is 50,000 centimeters. A quarter of a kilometer gives 25,000 centimeters, and three quarters of a kilometer 75,000 centimeters.
How many centimeters are in 5 km?
Five kilometers is 500,000 centimeters. Ten kilometers gives 1,000,000 centimeters, and twenty kilometers 2,000,000 centimeters.
How do you write a kilometer in centimeters in scientific notation?
A kilometer is 1 × 10⁵ cm. The mantissa is 1, because moving the decimal point leaves a single digit, and the exponent 5 counts the places the point moved. Three kilometers follows the same pattern: 3 × 10⁵ cm.
How many centimeters on a map make one kilometer?
It depends on the scale. On a 1:25,000 map a kilometer takes up 4 cm. On a 1:50,000 map the same kilometer fits into 2 cm, and on a 1:100,000 map 1 cm is enough for it. An American 1:24,000 quadrangle is the exception, where a kilometer covers about 4.17 cm. The table on this page lists nine scales in all.
Why does the multiplier carry five zeros?
Because it takes five steps down the metric ladder to get from the kilometer to the centimeter, and each step multiplies the value by ten. On the way you pass four units, the hectometer, the dekameter, the meter and the decimeter, so 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 makes 100,000.
Does the field accept decimal values?
Yes. You can type 1.5 or 1,5, and a simple fraction such as 1/2 as well. The result appears as you type, with no separate button to press.
Have a question or suggestion?
If you spotted an error in the tables or have an idea to improve the converter, write to us — we reply within 24 hours.