feet to meters converter

How to convert feet to meters

One international foot is exactly 0.3048 metres, which is 12 inches of 0.0254 m. Multiplying feet by 0.3048 is the conversion. Ten feet is 3.048 metres. The US survey foot, 1200/3937 m, was retired for most work at the end of 2022. NIST now points surveyors at the international foot as well. If you are reading a historic plat, the two feet differ by about 2 parts per million, which is centimetres over a long baseline and nothing on a room.

Ceiling heights, airport elevations published in feet, and building plans that still say feet while the structural model is in metres. Six feet of height is 1.8288 m. A 10,000 foot runway is 3048 m. Altitude in feet is this same foot. Pressure altitude is not a different length unit.

Exact formula

Formulameters = feet × 0.3048

meters = feet × 0.3048 One ft is 0.3048 m. Ten ft is 3.048 m. The worked example below uses that same conversion.

Conversion table

The feet column runs from 1 ft (0.3048 m) through 5280 ft (1609.34 m).

Worked example: Feet to Meters

A six-foot person is 1.829 m. The international foot is exactly 0.3048 m, twelve inches of 25.4 mm. A 10 ft ceiling is 3.048 m. A mile of feet, 5280 ft, is 1609.34 m, which has to match the mile pages or the factors have drifted. The US survey foot was retired for most work after 2022 and differs by about two parts per million. Room height does not care. A long plat might. Square feet use the square of 0.3048, not this factor.

Pitfalls for feet to meters

• The survey foot is not 0.3048 exactly. Old coordinates can disagree in the centimetres over kilometres.
• A foot of elevation and a foot of pipe are the same unit. The context does not change the factor.
• Feet and square feet are not interchangeable. Area uses 0.09290304, the square of 0.3048.
• Rounding 0.3048 to 0.3 throws away 1.6 percent, which is 16 cm on a 10 m length.