On a miter saw, when you're cutting a 90 degree cut, the miter saw reads zero. On a protractor, it reads 90. So it's an unending source of confusion for people. RON HAZELTON: So Mark, show me how it works.
A ruler is used to measure units of length, inches, feet and yards. Standard rulers have inches on one side and centimeters on the other. A typical ruler measures up to 12 inches, and is equivalent to 30.48 centimeters. This is also equivalent to 1 foot. Each inch on a ruler has markings in between that are a fraction of an inch.
Quick Answer. Most standard rulers are 30 centimeters long, which makes 1 centimeter equal to one-thirtieth of the length of a standard 12-inch, or 30-centimeter, ruler. The centimeter is a metric unit of measure that, according to Metric-Conversions, is equal to 0.3937 inches. Continue Reading.