What Is the Universal Length Converter?
Lengths are measured in different units around the world. Most countries use the metric system — millimetres, centimetres, metres and kilometres — while the United States and a few others still use imperial units such as inches, feet, yards and miles. Sailors and pilots use nautical miles, and scientists work with tiny micrometres and nanometres. This converter brings all eleven units together in one place, so you can move between systems without memorising a single conversion factor.
Step-by-Step: How to Convert Any Length
Step 1: Type your value into the box.
Step 2: Choose the unit you are converting from.
Step 3: Choose the unit you want to convert to.
Step 4: Read the converted result instantly. Use the Swap Units button whenever you need the reverse conversion.
A Worked Example
Suppose you are booking a holiday and a hotel describes its beach as 10 km away, but you think in miles. Enter 10, choose kilometer as the first unit and mile as the second, and the converter gives about 6.21 miles. Or take a person’s height of 6 feet: convert it to centimetres and you get 182.88 cm, the figure that most official forms outside the United States will ask for.
Helpful Tips
Remember three anchor conversions and you can sanity-check any result: 1 inch is exactly 2.54 cm, 1 foot is 30.48 cm, and 1 mile is about 1.609 km. A nautical mile is exactly 1852 metres, noticeably longer than a land mile of about 1609 metres. For very small scientific units, keep the prefixes straight: milli means a thousandth, micro a millionth, and nano a thousand-millionth of a metre.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How many length units can this converter handle?
It converts between eleven units: millimetre, centimetre, metre, kilometre, inch, foot, yard, mile, nautical mile, micrometre and nanometre.
2. How do I convert metres into feet?
Enter the value, choose meter as the first unit and foot as the second. One metre equals about 3.28084 feet.
3. What is a nautical mile used for?
Nautical miles are used at sea and in aviation. One nautical mile is exactly 1852 metres and is based on the Earth’s circumference.
4. Is 1 inch exactly 2.54 centimetres?
Yes. Since 1959 the inch has been defined internationally as exactly 2.54 cm, so conversions based on it are exact.
5. Can I convert very small scientific measurements?
Yes. The converter includes micrometres and nanometres, so it handles everything from engineering tolerances to wavelengths of light.
| Unit | Symbol | Equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Nanometer | nm | 1 m = 1,000,000,000 nm |
| Micrometer | µm | 1 m = 1,000,000 µm |
| Millimeter | mm | 1 m = 1,000 mm |
| Centimeter | cm | 1 m = 100 cm |
| Meter | m | 1 m = 1 m |
| Kilometer | km | 1 m = 0.001 km |
| Inch | in | 1 m = 39.3701 in |
| Foot | ft | 1 m = 3.28084 ft |
| Yard | yd | 1 m = 1.09361 yd |
| Mile | mi | 1 m = 0.000621371 mi |
| Nautical Mile | nmi | 1 m = 0.000539957 nmi |