Nm to MM Converter

Common questions

How many mm is 1 nanometer?

One millionth of a millimetre, 0.000001 mm, and the converter prints it as a decimal because the exponential display starts just below that magnitude. The pattern holds at every size: 10 nm is 0.00001 mm, 100 nm is 0.0001 mm, 1,000 nm is 0.001 mm, 10,000 nm is 0.01 mm, 100,000 nm is 0.1 mm, 1,000,000 nm is exactly 1 mm and 1,000,000,000 nm is 1,000 mm.

Does nm mean nanometre or nautical mile on this page?

The nanometre. The length category lists Nanometre (nm) at a billionth of a metre and Nautical mile (nmi) at 1,852 metres as two separate rows, and nothing in the table reads nm as a distance at sea, though charts and aviation write the nautical mile as NM or nmi. If the nautical mile is what you wanted, pick Nautical mile (nmi) in the From menu: 1 nmi is 1,852,000 mm, which is 1.852 km.

What is the formula for nm to mm?

Millimetres = nanometres / 1,000,000, and nanometres = millimetres × 1,000,000 in the other direction, so 1 mm is 1,000,000 nm and 0.5 mm is 500,000 nm. Because the factor is a power of ten the conversion only shifts the decimal point, six places left going down to millimetres, and there is no repeating tail of the kind you get converting to inches, where 1,000,000 nm is 0.0393700787402 in. The swap button between the boxes reverses the pair without a reload.

What is a 500 nm wavelength in millimetres?

0.0005 mm. Visible light runs roughly 380 to 700 nm, which is 0.00038 mm to 0.0007 mm, so the whole visible band sits inside a thousandth of a millimetre. Two more that come up in optics: the 632.8 nm helium neon line is 0.0006328 mm and the 193 nm excimer line is 0.000193 mm. Type the nanometre figure in the From box and the headline is the millimetre figure, with centimetres, metres and inches listed underneath.

Why does 1 nm print as 0.000001 mm but 0.5 nm as 5e-7?

Because a magnitude below 0.000001 is shown in exponential notation, which beats counting zeroes, and one nanometre in millimetres is exactly on that line. So 1 nm reads 0.000001 mm, 0.5 nm reads 5e-7 mm and 0.1 nm, one angstrom, reads 1e-7 mm. The From box reads exponents as well as digits, so typing 2.54e7 is taken as 25,400,000 nm, and Copy result copies the headline exactly as printed, without the thousands separators.

How many nanometres are in an inch or a thou?

25,400,000 nanometres in an inch, because an inch is exactly 25.4 mm and every millimetre is 1,000,000 nm. Type 25,400,000 in the From box, with or without the commas, and the headline reads 25.4 mm with 1 in among the rows below. A thou, a thousandth of an inch, is 25,400 nm, which this page reads as 0.0254 mm. The thou has its own row in the list once the uncommon units switch is on.

Where do nanometre and millimetre sit in the list under the answer?

Millimetre is a common length unit, so it appears in the list as well as in the headline. Nanometre never appears there, because the list leaves out the unit you are converting from. By default the list shows millimetres, centimetres, metres, kilometres, inches, feet, yards, miles and nautical miles; flip the switch in the readout, labelled Show 7 more, and it adds micrometre, thou, furlong, astronomical unit, light year and parsec. Both menus list every length unit at all times, uncommon ones included.

Why does the page open on nm and mm when I last converted something else?

Because a page that names a pair should show that pair. Arriving here sets Nanometre and Millimetre ahead of anything the converter remembered from a previous visit, and it does not overwrite that memory: open the main unit converter afterwards and it is still on the pair and category you left it on. The number in the value box does follow you between pages, since it is usually the figure you are still working on.