Is 5m 28 centimeters equal to 5.28m or 5.28 centimeters?

Answer 1

In the metric system all lengths are measured in metres. Unlike the imperial system where 12 inches make a foot, 3 feet make a yard, and inch foot and yard are separate units.

This means that every distance is quoted as a number of metres, eg an olympic swimming pool is 50 metres long. When the distance is smaller than a metre, we use a prefix to show what fraction of a metre is being used. For instance an A4 sheet of paper is 0.297 metres long and 0.210 metres wide, to make this easier to write (and say) we quote the length as thousandths of a metre; 0.297 metres is 297 thousandths of a metre.
Because the metric system is international and isn't restricted to English speaking nations, there is a system of prefixes that indicate what fraction of a metre is being used. The prefix for thousandths is milli-, so 0.297 metres is 297 millimetres, although we say millimetres the measurement is still in metres we're just quoting thousandths of a metre.

The prefix centi- indicates hundredths , so 1 centimetre is 0.01 metres. This means that 5 metres and 28 centimetres is 5 metres and 28 hundredths of a metre, which is 5.28 metres.

Because all measurements are in metres saying 5 metres and 28 centimetres is incorrect, the distance is simply 5.28 metres, you wouldn't say 5 miles and one half of a mile, you'd say 5 and a half miles.

Answer 2

In value, yes. The extra zero on the end indicates a higher degree of precision. For example, 5.4 could really be 5.39, 5.43, 5.44, 5.36, etc. rounded to 5.4. That is because 5.4 has precision only to the tenths place so its error can be +/- 4 hundredths. However, 5.40 could only be off by 4 thousandths of an inch (5.403, 5.404, etc.), which makes 5.40 much more accurate than 5.4.

Answer 3

5.28m