Conversion of Length

If you want a quick conversion, try our Conversion Charts, but if you want a deeper understanding, read on ....

How to Convert Lengths

Conversion of length is simply a matter of multiplying by the right number.

To convert lengths, follow these steps:

If we put a 1-meter ruler next to a 1-foot ruler, they would look like this:
If you then looked more closely, you would see that the 1-foot ruler came to exactly 0.3048 on the meter ruler:

So, the conversion for feet to meters is:1 ft = 0.3048 meters

Now, to find out what 3 feet would be in meters, we could just put three 1 foot rulers next to each other like this:

So, you can see that 3 feet = 3 × 0.3048 meters = 0.9144 meters

So, 3 ft = 0.9144 m

The conversion for kilometers into miles is:

1 km = 0.6214 mile

So, the length conversion is "multiply by 0.6214":

5 × 0.6214 = 3.1

So, 5 km = 3.1 miles