CM to Feet Converter

Using the CM to Feet Converter

This converter can convert between a value given in cm to feet and inches or the other way around.

To use this converter, first, choose your input value. Then type in the number of cms, or the number of feet and inches, depending on your initial choice.

Before you click on CONVERT, make sure you choose how many decimal places you want the result to be rounded to.

If your input value was in cm, you will receive the result in three forms: in feet and inches rounded to the requested number of decimal places, in feet and inches rounded to the nearest inch, and in inches as a decimal number rounded to the requested number of decimal places.

Alternatively, if your input was in feet and inches, you will receive the result in two forms: as a number of cms rounded to the desired number of decimal places, or as a number of meters and cm rounded to the desired number of decimal places.

You can also choose to copy the desired results for later use.

If you do not need to work on a specific dimension, but instead want to see a variety of ranges for your conversions, you can click on the icon of the table and observe conversions arranged into groups in the said table.

Imperial and Metric Units

The problem with converting between imperial (feet, inches, miles, etc.) and metric (meters, grams, liters, etc.) units is that they are both based on very different concepts. This leads to conversion rates that are not very neat and often involve decimal numbers, as we will see later on.

Overview Of the Imperial System

The word ‘imperial’ comes from the British Imperial System, which is referring to a system of units that was standardized in the year 1824 in the United Kingdom. The units that fall under this system are feet, inches, miles, ounces, pounds, gallons, and acres. The origin of these units spans all the way to the Roman empire, but the formal definition of each unit changed over time.

The imperial units are not used as predominantly in the UK anymore, since in 1965 the country switched to the metric system. However this change was relatively recent, and that is why a part of the population still refers to the imperial system in some contexts, although official measurements must be always done in the metric system.

The imperial system is currently used as the official system only in the USA, Liberia, and Myanmar.

Due to its rocky history, the imperial system does not have an established original reference for each unit, hence today, each unit is actually defined by a ratio tied to a metric unit. Some of the original references can be quite funny, for example, the current-day foot seems to be the foot size of king Henry I. However, most of these origins are not certain and highly speculative.

Overview Of the Metric System

During the age of enlightenment, there was a lot of pressure in society to apply logical and systematic solutions over more traditional ones. Due to the inconsistencies in measurement, as for example a foot was defined very differently across countries and regions, a need for unified units of measurement arose.

During the French Revolution of 1799, the first widespread application of the metric system took place in France, as a response to the constant complaints of inconsistent units being used for the purposes of trade.

The system was at first met with the dissatisfaction of the population, as tradition is often stronger than sense and takes a few generations to establish.

During the 1850s, the metric system was completed and accepted in most of Europe and was spreading slowly to the rest of the world, as whoever wanted to trade with the Europeans had to adapt to their units of measurement.

This motivation through trade helped the system become the new standard in most of the world, hence showing one of the biggest systematic changes that affected the global population for the sake of uniformity.

To this day, there are certain artifacts, usually just sticks, cubes, and spheres, made out of special materials, that are the baselines for kilograms, meters, or liters.

These artifacts have been substituted by more constant measures (as all materials decay with time and hence their preciseness can be disrupted), like referencing certain physical constants.

The original idea for the metric system is fairly straightforward, which is where the beauty of this system comes from, which is most apparent in conversions, as they are done with multiples of 10.

The original base units were taken from nature as follows:

• The original meter was defined as a fraction of 1/10,000,000 the length from the Equator to the North Pole.
• A liter is defined as a cube with each side being equal to 0.1 of a meter.
• A kilogram is the weight of 1 liter of water.

Converting CM and Feet Manually

The conversion between the metric and imperial units is based on the following relationships (all rounded to two decimal places):

1 ~foot = 30.48 ~cm

1 ~cm = 0.0328 ~feet

1 ~foot = 12 ~inches

1 ~inch = 2.54 ~cm

Hence, to convert between the units, the following formulae can be established:

feet = cm \div 30.48

cm = feet \div 0.0328

feet = inch \div 12

cm = inch ~ * ~2.54

Let’s look at 2 examples of these calculations in practice.

EXAMPLE 1: Maria is 5 feet and 4 inches tall. What is her height in cm?

We will convert the two units separately and then add the results in cm.

5 ~feet \div 0.0328 = 152.44 ~cm

4 ~inches * 2.54 = 10.16 ~cm

the ~total ~height ~is ~\\152.44 + 10.16 = 162.6 ~cm.

EXAMPLE 2: David ordered a screen with a 60 cm diagonal. How many inches is the diagonal of this screen?

60 \div 2.54 = 23.62 ~inches.

References

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Imperial-unit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_metric_system