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Measurement › Length

Length

How far is it? Everything from the thickness of a hair to the distance to the moon.

Unit converter

=
3.2808

The metric ladder

  • 1 cm = 10 mm. About the width of a fingernail.
  • 1 m = 100 cm. A tall step.
  • 1 km = 1000 m. About 12 minutes' walk.

Each step up the ladder multiplies by 10, 100, or 1000. That's why metric is fast — moving the decimal point does the converting.

Imperial / US

  • 12 inches = 1 foot
  • 3 feet = 1 yard
  • 1760 yards = 1 mile

Useful conversions to memorise

1 inch ≈ 2.54 cm · 1 foot ≈ 30 cm · 1 mile ≈ 1.6 km · 1 m ≈ 3.28 ft