The kilometer (from the Greek word for “thousand”) is a unit of length, equal to 1000 meters. It was first proposed in 1875 by the French scientist Georges Le Verneur, and was first used in 1880. The SI base unit of measurement is the meter, but since 2006, the kilometer has been recognized as an official unit of measure by the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM), alongside the meter, kilogram and second. The kilometer is not officially defined, but it is based on the distance that light travels in a vacuum in 1/299.792 of a second.

A meter is the basic unit of measurement in the metric system. Originally, meters were the length of a pendulum that shook each time it hit a floor or a beam. The original metric system was based on the length of a pendulum and consisted of 1/10 000th of a kilometer (or one tenth of a millimeter). Today, meters are used to measure everything from length to volume to temperature. Meter is a unit of measurement that originated in ancient India. It was primarily used to measure liquids, such as water and rice wine, but it has since been adapted for other uses. In particular, meter is the standard by which length and weight are measured. Today, meter is most commonly used to measure electricity, gas and water. Butmeter has also been adopted by some industries as their preferred standard for measuring quantities such as freight volume, material flow or production output.