text: how many millimeters in a centimeter - or visa versa?   the way we learned the conversion in grade school was by remembering  kangaroos hop down under drinking chocolate milk  k = kilo h = hecto d = deca u = unit (base, like meter, gram, liter, etc) d = deci c = centi m = milli  so just find the one you are starting from, count over to the one you need, and move the decimal point that many places right or left.