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The kilometre (SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American English and Philippine English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is the preferred measurement unit to express distances between geographical places on land in most of the world; notable exceptions are the United States and the United Kingdom where the statute mile is used.
The first pronunciation follows a pattern in English whereby SI units are pronounced with the stress on the first syllable (as in kilogram, kilojoule and kilohertz) and the pronunciation of the actual base unit does not change irrespective of the prefix (as in centimetre, millimetre, nanometre and so on). It is generally preferred by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Many other users, particularly in countries where SI (the metric system) is not widely used, use the second pronunciation with stress on the second syllable. The second pronunciation follows the stress pattern used for the names of measuring instruments (such as micrometer, barometer, thermometer, tachometer, and speedometer). The contrast is even more obvious in countries that use the American spelling of the word metre. This pronunciation is irregular because it makes the kilometre the only SI unit with the stress on the second syllable.
After Australia introduced the metric system in 1970, the first pronunciation was declared official by the government's Metric Conversion Board. However, the Australian prime minister at the time, Gough Whitlam, insisted that the second pronunciation was the correct one because of the Greek origins of the two parts of the word.
| 1 kilometre | ≡ | ||
| ≈ | feet | ||
| ≈ | |||
| ≈ | 0.621 | ||
| ≈ | 0.540 | ||
| ≈ | astronomical units | ||
| ≈ | |||
| ≈ |
The Dutch, on the other hand, adopted the kilometre in 1817 but gave it the local name of the mijl. It was only in 1867 that the term " kilometer became the only official unit of measure in the Netherlands to represent metres.
Two German textbooks dated 1842 Text version of Malaisé's book. and 1848 respectively give a snapshot of the use of the kilometre across Europe: the kilometre was in use in the Netherlands and in Italy, and the myriametre was in use in France.
In 1935, the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) officially abolished the prefix "myria-" and with it the "myriametre", leaving the kilometre as the recognised unit of length for measurements of that magnitude. (1997). 9780948251849, Picton. ISBN 9780948251849
The symbol km for the kilometre is in lower case and has been standardised by the BIPM. A slang term for the kilometre in the US, UK, and Canadian militaries is .
| +1 km world records for various sporting disciplines | |||||
| Running (M) | Noah Ngeny | 2:11.96 | Rieti, Italy | Not an Olympic event | |
| Running (F) | Svetlana Masterkova | 2:28.98 | Brussels | Not an Olympic event | |
| Speed skating (M) | Jordan Stolz | 1:05.37 | Salt Lake City | ||
| Speed skating (F) | Brittany Bowe | 1:11.61 | Salt Lake City | ||
| Track cycling (M) | François Pervis | 56.303 | Aguascalientes, Mexico | No official women's record |
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