Feet to Metres

What is a foot?

The foot (symbol ft or ′) is the customary unit of length in the US Customary system and UK Imperial system. Its modern definition is exact: 1 ft = exactly 0.3048 m = 12 inches, agreed internationally in 1959 to standardise across the US, UK, Canada and Australia, which had previously used slightly different national feet lengths. Three feet make one yard, 5 280 feet make one mile. The unit originates with the length of a human foot but has been formalised by treaty for centuries. It survives in specific domains — US body height, US building floor heights, US construction lumber and framing dimensions, aviation altitudes (flight levels are worldwide reported in feet), oil-and-gas drilling depths, American football and golf course distances.

What is a metre?

The metre (symbol m, US spelling meter) is the SI base unit of length. Since 1983 it has been defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299 792 458 of a second — a definition that ties length permanently to the speed of light. In everyday life, a metre is roughly the distance from a tall adult’s fingertip to the opposite shoulder, the height of a kitchen worktop, or the length of a guitar. The metre is the standard unit of room dimensions, ceiling heights, sports pitches, swimming pool lanes, athletic track distances, and most engineering and architectural drawings outside the US. The kilometre (1000 m), centimetre (1/100 m) and millimetre (1/1000 m) are its most common related units.

The conversion formula

metres = feet × 0.3048. The reverse is multiplication by 3.28084. A worked example: a person who is 6 ft tall converts to 6 × 0.3048 = 1.8288 m, or 182.88 cm. A US-spec 8 ft ceiling becomes 8 × 0.3048 = 2.4384 m. An American football field at 100 yd (300 ft, plus end zones) is 300 × 0.3048 = 91.44 m. Because the foot is defined by an exact 0.3048 m equivalence, the conversion is mathematically precise; any rounding you see is purely cosmetic truncation at the display step.

Common reference values

A handful of conversions worth memorising:

• 1 ft = 0.3048 m — the literal definition.
• 2 ft ≈ 0.61 m — a typical desk depth.
• 5 ft ≈ 1.524 m — average adult female height in much of the world.
• 6 ft ≈ 1.829 m — tall adult height.
• 8 ft ≈ 2.438 m — a standard US ceiling height.
• 10 ft ≈ 3.048 m — a US-spec single storey.
• 100 ft ≈ 30.48 m — about a third of a football pitch’s length.
• 5 280 ft = 1.609 km — one mile.

The reference table on the page widens this list and updates live as you change the input value.

The most common reason to convert feet to meters is body height. A few worked examples that match the way the question is usually asked: 5 feet to meters = 5 × 0.3048 = 1.524 m (152.4 cm); 6 feet in meters = 6 × 0.3048 = 1.8288 m (about 182.88 cm); 5 ft 10 in (a US passport-style entry) = 5.8333 × 0.3048 = 1.778 m (177.8 cm). Whether you spell the unit meters (American) or metres (British and international), the SI unit is identical and the arithmetic is the same.

Why people convert feet to metres

Body height. The US and UK record adult height in feet and inches; the rest of the world uses centimetres or metres. A 5 ft 11 in US passport entry converts to 1.803 m, or 180.3 cm — useful for international visa forms, dating profiles, or medical records.

Travel and accommodation. US listings give ceiling heights and room sizes in feet; international listings use metres. Converting helps when assessing whether tall furniture, a roof-rack-loaded car, or oversized luggage will fit through a stated doorway or under a stated ceiling in another country.

Construction and architecture. US architectural plans are in feet and inches; European plans are in metres and millimetres. When firms collaborate across systems, feet → metres conversion is constant for RFIs, shop drawings, ceiling heights, and floor plates.

Aviation. Aircraft altitudes are reported in feet worldwide (a holdover from US dominance of early commercial aviation), while ground-level terrain is mapped in metres in most countries. Pilots and air-traffic controllers convert between the two routinely — a 35 000 ft cruising altitude is 10 668 m.

Sports. American football yards, US golf course yardages, and US track-and-field high school marks need conversion when shared with an international audience. A 50 yd field-goal attempt is 45.72 m.

How to use this Feet to Metres converter

1. Type your value in feet into the input box. Decimals work directly (e.g. 5.833 for 5 ft 10 in). The result in metres updates as you type — no Convert button.
2. The reference table below shows several common feet values and their metre equivalents, rendered to the same precision as the live result.
3. To go the other way (metres → feet) tap Swap or open the dedicated Metres to Feet landing.
4. Tap the copy icon next to the result to put the metres value on your clipboard, ready to paste into a form or document.
5. For feet-and-inches input, divide the inches by 12 and add to the feet before typing — so 5 ft 10 in becomes 5.8333 ft.

Privacy

The conversion is a single multiplication — it runs locally on your device with no network call. There are no analytics on the numbers you type, no server-side logging, and the page works the same way offline once it has loaded. Confirm in your browser’s Network panel if you want; the only requests you’ll see are the one-time page load.

Compatibility notes

The math works in every browser ever made — it’s literally a single multiplication. Result formatting uses the modern Intl-based number formatting that ships in every browser released since 2017, so very large and very small results display in scientific notation rather than as a wall of zeroes.