How to Convert Distance Measurements

Use the following conversion list to sort out how meters relate to yards and feet relate to miles.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Calculators
• Notebook Papers
• Pens And Pencils

Convert Distances Within the Metric System

1. Ten millimeters equal 1 centimeter.

2. Ten centimeters equal 1 decimeter.

3. Ten decimeters (or 1,000 mm or 100 cm) equal 1 meter.

4. Ten meters equal 1 decameter.

5. Ten decameters equal 1 hectometer.

6. Ten hectometers (or 1,000 m) equal 1 kilometer.

Convert Distances Within the U.S. System

1. Twelve inches equal 1 foot.

2. Three feet equal 1 yard.

3. Five and one-half yards equal 1 rod.

4. Forty rods equal 1 furlong.

5. Eight furlongs (or 1,760 yards or 5,280 feet) equal 1 mile.

Convert Between U.S. and Metric Measurements

1. One inch equals 2.54 centimeters. One centimeter equals 0.39 inch (0.3937 inches).

2. One foot equals 0.30 meter (0.3048 m). One meter equals 3.3 feet (3.2808 feet).

3. One yard equals 0.91 meter (0.9144 m). One meter equals 1.1 yards (1.0936 yard).

4. One mile equals 1.6 kilometers (1.6093 km). One kilometer equals 0.62 mile (0.62137 mile).

Tips & Warnings

• The metric system is very easy to learn. It takes a basic unit of measurement (meters for distance, liters for volume, grams for weight) and then adds prefixes to indicate smaller or larger quantities.

• "Milli-" is one-thousandth, "centi-" is one-hundredth and "deci-" is one-tenth of the basic unit of measure (meters, in this case).

• "Deca-" is 10 times, "hecto-" is 100 times and "kilo-" is 1,000 times the basic unit of measure.