Convert one foot (survey) to meters

Explanation

To convert one foot (survey) to meters all we need is to know the conversion factor and we are done. Luckily, we can compute that factor using the units' definitions below.

We find that one foot (survey) is approximately equal to 0.3048 meters.

Formula

1 sft ≈ 0.3048 m

feet (survey)sft

dimension	length
system	U.S. customary units (USCS)
symbol	sft

The survey foot (sft) is a unit of length used only in the United States.

Definition of the survey foot

One survey foot is equal to ¹²⁰⁰⁄₃₉₈₇ of a meter.

NIST Handbook 44 Specifications: Appendix C p. C-10

Survey length units

link	li
foot	sft
rod	rd	25 links
chain	ch	4 rods or 66 feet
furlong	fur	10 chains
mile	mi	8 furlongs
league	lea	3 miles

The United States Survey Units

In 1959, the International yard and pound agreement defined the international yard as exactly 0.9144 meter. Since a yard is three feet, the international foot was therefore 0.3048 meter.

At the time, for all survey purposes, the U.S. used a foot defined as 1200/3937 meter. This definition was kept and the unit renamed the survey foot.

The difference between the survey foot and the international foot is only of two parts per billions. An international foot is equal to 0.999998 survey feet. Whilst of no consequence for most use cases, this difference can become problematic in surveying where distances can be measured in hundreds of miles.

The other survey units being based on this survey foot they are also slightly bigger than their respective international counterpart.

metersm

dimension	length
system	International system of units (SI)
symbol	m

The meter (m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units.

Definition of the meter

It is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the speed of light in vacuum c to be 299792458 when expressed in the unit m s^–1, where the second is defined in terms of the caesium frequency ∆ν_Cs.

Definition from the BIPM: Unit of length

In layman's terms, one meter is the distance traveled by light in 1/299 792 458 of a second.

Equivalences

One meter is equivalent to:

Metric length units

femtometer	fm	0.000 000 000 000 001
picometer	pm	0.000 000 000 001
nanometer	nm	0.000 000 001
micrometer	µm	0.000 001
millimeter	mm	0.001
centimeter	cm	0.01
decimeter	dm	0.1
meter	m	1
dekameter	dam	10
hectometer	hm	100
kilometer	km	1000
megameter	Mm	1 000 000
gigameter	Gm	1 000 000 000
terameter	Tm	1 000 000 000 000
petameter	Pm	1 000 000 000 000 000
exameter	Em	1 000 000 000 000 000 000

The International System of Units

The International System of Units or SI (from the French Système international (d'unité)), also called metric system in the U.S., is a coherent system of units that was published 1960. It is official in nearly every country.

The General Conference on Weights and Measures (Conférence générale des poids et mesures) is tasked with overseeing the SI.