How to Change Fractions of Inches to Centimeters

Other rulers also divide inches into sixteenths.

On some common one-foot rulers, inches are divided into eighths. To convert these fractional measurements to centimeters, you need only look to the corresponding metric measurement on the opposite side of the ruler. But suppose you need to convert 5/6 of an inch, 33 1/3 inches or even 99 9/10 inches. To convert these and any other fractional inch measurements, you need to simplify by first calculating the decimal form of the fraction and then converting the measurement into centimeters.

Things You'll Need

• Calculator

Instructions

1. Find a measurement in inches. For this example, consider 6 7/8 inches.

2. Convert the fraction part of the inch measurement into a decimal by dividing the denominator into the numerator. For this example, the numerator 7 divided by the denominator 8 results in 0.875.

3. Add the decimal portion of the inch measurement to the integer part of the measurement. For this example, adding 6 to 0.875 produces 6.875.

4. Multiply the decimal representation of the inch by 2.54, which will convert it to centimeter representation. For this example, multiplying 6.875 by 2.54 results in 17.4625 cm.

References

• Washington State Department of Transportation: The Metrics International System of Units
• Cascades Volcano Observatory: Conversion Formulas
• MetricAmerica.com: Convert Fractions of an Inch to Centimeters (cm)

Resources

• SI Metric: Conversion Calculator