Nanometer - Definition and Overview

A nanometre (American spelling: nanometer) is 1.0×10⁻⁹ metres—or one billionth of a metre. Its symbol is nm. It is an SI measure of length, commonly used in measuring the wavelengths of visible light (400 nm to 700 nm), ultraviolet radiation and gamma rays; amongst other things.

1 nm = 1000 picometre.
1000 nm = 1 micrometre ( or 1 micron)

In older (e.g. 1958) texts, the nm is sometimes denoted "mµ" for "millimicron", based on the old term "micron" for a micrometre. Double prefixes are not allowed in SI, and this is never seen in modern writing or speech.

picometre << nanometre << micrometre

See also

• 1 E-9 m for a list of objects several nanometres large
• 90 nanometer

External links

• Conversion Calculator for Units of LENGTH (http://www.ex.ac.uk/cimt/dictunit/ccleng.htm)