Converting feet to meters comes up constantly — for travel, height-on-forms, construction quotes from suppliers in different countries, sports statistics, and everyday curiosity. The math is simple but the mental shortcut is what most articles miss. This guide gives you the exact value, the practical approximation, a lookup table for the most-searched heights, and the corner cases where 1 foot is not 0.3048 meters.
The exact conversion
The number to remember
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The mental shortcut
For rough mental math:
- 1 foot ≈ 0.3 meters (off by about 1.6%)
- 10 feet ≈ 3 meters (off by about 5 cm)
- 1 meter ≈ 3.3 feet (off by about 1 cm per meter)
For human heights, an even simpler trick: round your height in feet, multiply by 30, the answer is your height in centimetres. A 6 ft person is roughly 180 cm. A 5'8" person is roughly 170 cm. Off by 1-2 cm in each case, close enough for most purposes.
The most-searched heights
| Meters | Centimetres | |
|---|---|---|
| 5'0" | 1.524 m | 152.4 cm |
| 5'2" | 1.575 m | 157.5 cm |
| 5'4" | 1.626 m | 162.6 cm |
| 5'6" | 1.676 m | 167.6 cm |
| 5'8" | 1.727 m | 172.7 cm |
| 5'10" | 1.778 m | 177.8 cm |
| 6'0" | 1.829 m | 182.9 cm |
| 6'2" | 1.880 m | 188.0 cm |
| 6'4" | 1.930 m | 193.0 cm |
| 6'6" | 1.981 m | 198.1 cm |
Whole-foot lookup table
| Meters | Yards | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 ft | 0.305 m | 0.333 yd |
| 2 ft | 0.610 m | 0.667 yd |
| 3 ft | 0.914 m | 1.000 yd |
| 5 ft | 1.524 m | 1.667 yd |
| 10 ft | 3.048 m | 3.333 yd |
| 20 ft | 6.096 m | 6.667 yd |
| 50 ft | 15.24 m | 16.67 yd |
| 100 ft | 30.48 m | 33.33 yd |
| 500 ft | 152.4 m | 166.7 yd |
| 1,000 ft | 304.8 m | 333.3 yd |
| 5,280 ft (1 mile) | 1,609.3 m | 1,760 yd |
Meters back to feet
| Feet (decimal) | Feet and inches | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 m | 3.28 ft | 3 ft 3.4 in |
| 1.5 m | 4.92 ft | 4 ft 11.1 in |
| 1.7 m | 5.58 ft | 5 ft 6.9 in |
| 1.8 m | 5.91 ft | 5 ft 10.9 in |
| 2 m | 6.56 ft | 6 ft 6.7 in |
| 5 m | 16.40 ft | 16 ft 4.9 in |
| 10 m | 32.81 ft | 32 ft 9.7 in |
| 100 m | 328.08 ft | 328 ft 1 in |
| 1 km | 3,280.84 ft | 0.621 miles |
Inches and feet: the conversion within a conversion
Heights in the US are usually given as feet and inches (5'9", not 5.75 ft). To convert that to meters:
- Convert inches portion to feet: 9 inches ÷ 12 = 0.75 ft
- Total feet: 5 + 0.75 = 5.75 ft
- Multiply by 0.3048: 5.75 × 0.3048 = 1.7526 m
Or work in inches directly: 1 inch = 2.54 cm exactly. So 5'9" = 69 inches × 2.54 = 175.26 cm = 1.7526 m. Same answer.
When 1 foot is not 0.3048 meters
The international foot (0.3048 m exactly) is the default. There are two exceptions worth knowing about:
US survey foot
Used in US geodetic and cadastral surveys until 2022, the US survey foot equals 1200/3937 meters ≈ 0.3048006 m. The difference is about 2 millimeters per mile — irrelevant for everyday use, significant for large land surveys. As of 2023 the US officially uses the international foot.
Foot in other historical systems
Pre-metric Europe had dozens of regional "foot" definitions ranging from 25 cm (ancient Greek) to 36 cm (Bavarian). If you are reading a pre-1900 European document, do not assume the foot equals 30.48 cm — look up the regional unit.
Common conversions for non-height applications
Construction
- 8 ft (ceiling) = 2.44 m
- 10 ft (commercial ceiling) = 3.05 m
- 12 ft (garage door height) = 3.66 m
- 16 ft (joist span) = 4.88 m
Sports
- 100 m sprint = 328 ft
- 400 m lap = 1,312 ft = 0.25 mi
- Marathon (26.2 mi) = 42.195 km = 138,435 ft
- Football field (100 yd) = 91.44 m
- NBA court (94 ft long) = 28.65 m
Aviation
- Cruise altitude 35,000 ft = 10,668 m (≈ 10.7 km)
- Mount Everest 29,032 ft = 8,849 m
- 1 nautical mile = 6,076 ft = 1,852 m
Common questions
How do I convert 6 feet to meters?
6 × 0.3048 = 1.829 m. About 183 cm.
How tall is 1.65 m in feet?
1.65 ÷ 0.3048 = 5.41 ft. That is 5 feet 5 inches (0.41 ft × 12 in/ft = 4.92 inches, rounded to 5).
Is 1 foot exactly 30 centimeters?
No, 1 foot = 30.48 cm exactly. The 30 cm rounding is a commonly used approximation but it is off by about 1.6%. For casual estimation it is fine. For anything precise (cabinet making, technical drawings), use the exact value.
Why is the foot defined as 0.3048 m exactly?
It is the 1959 international agreement. The US, UK, Canada, Australia, and South Africa all standardized on the same definition so that engineering specifications across countries match exactly. Before 1959 every country had small differences.
What's a quick way to convert meters to feet in my head?
Multiply meters by 3 and add 10% of the original number. Example: 5 m × 3 = 15, plus 10% of 5 (= 0.5) = 15.5 ft. The exact answer is 16.4 ft, so the trick over-corrects slightly, but it gives you a quick sanity check.