Length Converter
Convert between metres, kilometres, miles, feet, inches and more.
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The Length Converter switches a distance between metre, kilometre, centimetre, millimetre, mile, yard, foot and inch. It covers the everyday crossings between metric and imperial: heights given in feet, race distances in kilometres versus miles, screen sizes in inches and fabric sold by the metre or the yard.
How to convert a length
Type a number into Value, select its unit under From, select the unit you want under To and press Convert. The first line gives the answer; the rows underneath repeat the same distance in each of the other seven units, so you can read off centimetres, feet and inches from a single calculation. Answers are rounded to six decimal places.
Exact definitions behind the numbers
| Unit | In metres |
|---|---|
| 1 inch | 0.0254 |
| 1 foot | 0.3048 |
| 1 yard | 0.9144 |
| 1 mile | 1,609.344 |
These are not approximations. The 1959 international yard and pound agreement defined the yard as exactly 0.9144 m, which makes the inch exactly 2.54 cm. The rest follows from the imperial ratios: 12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard and 1,760 yards to a mile.
Worked examples
Height in feet and inches
The converter takes one unit at a time, so a height of 5 ft 8 in has to be turned into inches first: 5 × 12 + 8 = 68. Enter 68, From inch, To centimetre, and the result is 172.72 cm (68 × 2.54). The rows also show 1.7272 m and 5.666667 ft. If you convert heights often, the height converter accepts feet and inches in separate boxes.
Race distances
A half marathon is 21.0975 km, which converts to 13.109379 miles; a full marathon of 42.195 km is 26.218757 miles. A 5 km park run is 3.106856 miles.
Screen sizes
TVs and monitors are sold by their diagonal in inches. A 55-inch set converts to 139.7 cm, which Indian product listings usually shorten to "139 cm (55 inches)".
Mistakes to watch for
- Decimal feet are not feet and inches. 5.8 ft is not 5 ft 8 in. The decimal part is a fraction of a foot, so 0.8 × 12 = 9.6 in, making 5.8 ft equal to 5 ft 9.6 in, or 176.784 cm.
- Areas and volumes need their own converters. Converting the length of one side of a room does not give you square metres; use the area converter for that.
- Nautical miles are a different unit. A nautical mile is 1,852 m, not 1,609.344 m, and it is not in this list.
- Tiny results can round away. A millimetre expressed in miles is about 0.00000062, which shows as 0.000001 at six decimal places.