For instance, let’s say we want to know how tall we are in meters. If we’re exactly 6 feet tall, we would divide 6/3. 28 = 1. 83 meters. Note that 6 × 0. 3048 gives the same answer. Don’t forget to label your new answer in meters. For rough, on-the-fly calculations, you may want to round your conversion factors to 3. 3, 0. 3, etc. to make mental math much easier. Use caution, though as these rough values will cause inaccuracies in your results.
For instance, let’s say we want to know how tall we are in meters. If we’re exactly 6 feet tall, we would divide 6/3. 28 = 1. 83 meters. Note that 6 × 0. 3048 gives the same answer. Don’t forget to label your new answer in meters. For rough, on-the-fly calculations, you may want to round your conversion factors to 3. 3, 0. 3, etc. to make mental math much easier. Use caution, though as these rough values will cause inaccuracies in your results.
Let’s say that we want to convert our height to meters, but we’re not 6 feet tall this time. Instead, we’re 5 feet 10 inches. We would solve as follows: 10 / 12 = . 84 5 + . 84 = 5. 84 feet total 5. 84 / 3. 28 = 1. 78 meters You can also account for inches by turning your foot value into a fraction. 5 feet and 10 inches can be though of as 5 10/12 feet because there are 12 inches in 1 foot. Simply multiply 5 by the denominator (12) and add it to the numerator (10) to get one tidy fraction: 5 10/12 ((5 × 12) + 10) / 12 = 70/12 feet. Note that 70/12 = 5. 84 - the same value as obtained above. So 70/12 × 0. 3048 = 1. 78 meters as well.
Your conversion equation should account for every unit conversion you make on the way from feet to meters. It should also have one of every type of unit appear once in a numerator and once in a denominator, except for meters, which should only appear once, in a numerator.
A good way to remember this is to think of the fraction line as meaning “per. " That is, the “per” in “12 inches per 1 foot”, “2. 54 cm per 1 in”, and “1 m per 100 cm”. When you think of your conversion equation in this way, it’s easy to see how and why the units cancel out - you’re simply taking an initial value in feet through a string of operations, changing it into inches, then centimeters, until you’re finally left with meters.
Let’s say we want to convert 20 feet to meters. We would solve as follows: 20 ft × (12 in/1 ft) × (2. 54 cm/1 in) × (1 m/100 cm) = 240 in × (2. 54 cm/1 in) × (1 m/100 cm) = 609. 6 cm × (1 m/100 cm) = 6. 096 m.
