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In both customary and imperial units, one foot comprises 12 inches, and one yard comprises three feet. Since an international agreement in 1959, the foot is defined as equal to exactly 0.3048 meters. Historically, the "foot" was a part of many local systems of units, including the Greek, Roman, Chinese, French, and English systems. It varied in ...
For measuring length, the U.S. customary system uses the inch, foot, yard, and mile, which are the only four customary length measurements in everyday use. From 1893, the foot was legally defined as exactly 1200 ⁄ 3937 m (approximately 0.304 8006 m). [13] Since July 1, 1959, the units of length have been defined on the basis of 1 yd = 0.9144 ...
The basic unit of length in the imperial and U.S. customary systems is the yard, defined as exactly 0.9144 m by international treaty in 1959. [2] [5] Common imperial units and U.S. customary units of length include: [6] thou or mil (1 ⁄ 1000 of an inch) inch (25.4 mm) foot (12 inches, 0.3048 m) yard (3 feet, 0.9144 m)
Length; system unit code (other) symbol or abbrev. notes conversion factor/m combinations SI: gigametre: Gm Gm US spelling: gigameter 1.0 Gm (620,000 mi) megametre: Mm Mm US spelling: megameter
The centimetre (SI symbol: cm) is a unit of length in the metric system equal to 10 −2 metres ( 1 / 100 m = 0.01 m). To help compare different orders of magnitude , this section lists lengths between 10 −2 m and 10 −1 m (1 cm and 1 dm).
Other units are based on customary units, but use power-of-ten factors and metric prefixes. For example, distance to target for a U.S. submarine is expressed in kiloyards (kyd) rather than some combination of miles, yards, and feet. [71] Telephone transmission line length and loop distances are measured in kilofeet. [118]
Conversions between units in the metric system are defined by their prefixes (for example, 1 kilogram = 1000 grams, 1 milligram = 0.001 grams) and are thus not listed in this article. Exceptions are made if the unit is commonly known by another name (for example, 1 micron = 10 −6 metre).
Miners also use it as a unit of area equal to 6 feet square (3.34 m 2) in the plane of a vein. [2] In Britain, it can mean the quantity of wood in a pile of any length measuring 6 feet (1.8 m) square in cross section. [2] In Central Europe, the klafter was the corresponding unit of comparable length, as was the toise in France.