Micrometre

The micrometre (International spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American spelling), also commonly known by the previous name micron, is an SI derived unit of length 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 0.000039 inch).Between 1 μm and 10 μm:The term micron and the symbol μ were officially accepted for use in isolation to denote the micrometre in 1879, but officially revoked by the International System of Units (SI) in 1967. This became necessary because the older usage was incompatible with the official adoption of the unit prefix micro-, denoted μ, during the creation of the SI in 1960. In the SI, the systematic name micrometre became the official name of the unit, and μm became the official unit symbol.The official symbol for the SI prefix micro- is a Greek lowercase mu (μ). In Unicode, there is also a micro sign with the code point U+00B5 (µ), distinct from the code point U+03BC (μ) of the Greek letter lowercase mu. According to the Unicode Consortium, the Greek letter character is preferred, but implementations must recognize the micro sign as well. Most fonts use the same glyph for the two characters.