Foot Converter

About Feet

The foot (ft) is a unit of length in the imperial and United States customary systems of measurement. It is defined as exactly 12 inches or one-third of a yard. The international foot, as agreed upon in 1959, is precisely 0.3048 meters.

Historically, the "foot" was used in many different systems of units, including Greek, Roman, English, Chinese, and French systems. Its length often varied from city to city and country to country, sometimes based on the length of a king's foot or an average adult male foot. The standardization to 0.3048 meters brought consistency to international trade and scientific communication.

Feet are commonly used for:

• Measuring human height.
• Dimensions of rooms, houses, and buildings in construction.
• Altitude in aviation (e.g., "cruising at 30,000 feet").
• Shorter to medium distances in everyday language in countries using the imperial system.
• Furniture dimensions.
• Plot sizes for land (often in conjunction with acres).

The primary subdivision of a foot is the inch:

• 1 foot = 12 inches

In engineering, architecture, and surveying, feet are often expressed decimally (e.g., 10.5 feet). Inches are further subdivided into fractions like 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, etc.

To help visualize a foot:

• A standard school ruler is typically 1 foot (12 inches) long.
• The height of an average adult male's shoe is often around 1 foot in length.
• A standard sheet of US letter paper (8.5 × 11 inches) is slightly shorter than 1 foot in its longer dimension.
• Many floor tiles are 1 foot by 1 foot (1 square foot).