Foot
From Halbeeg, the open encyclopedia · Af-Soomaali
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The foot (abbreviation ft or ′) is a unit of length in the imperial and US customary systems of measurement. One foot equals exactly 0.3048 metres, a definition established by international agreement.
A foot is subdivided into 12 inches, and three feet make up one yard. The name derives from the length of the human foot, which was used as a traditional measure. Before standardization, its value varied from region to region.
Definition and calculation
In 1959, an international definition linking the foot to the metre was established: 1 ft = 0.3048 m. This is known as the international foot. The United States historically also used the US survey foot, which differs slightly, but its official use in new survey work has been discontinued.
Areas of use
The foot remains widely used in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries with historical ties to them, particularly in construction, building, and measurement of human height. Commercial air traffic worldwide and aircraft altitude are expressed in feet, even in countries that use the metric system.
Unit conversion
To convert feet to metres, the number is multiplied by 0.3048; to convert metres to feet, the number is divided by 0.3048 (or multiplied by approximately 3.2808). Examples: 10 ft = 3.048 m; 100 m ≈ 328.08 ft.