Foot (ft) Conversions
The foot (pl. feet), abbreviation and IEEE standard symbol: ft, is a unit of length in the British imperial and United States customary systems of measurement. Since the International Yard and Pound Agreement of 1959, one foot is defined as 0.3048 meters exactly. In customary and imperial units, one foot comprises 12 inches and one yard comprises three feet.
History
The foot was a common unit of measurement throughout Europe. The "foot" was a part of many local systems of units, including the Greek, Roman, Chinese, French, and English systems. It varied in length from country to country, from city to city, and sometimes from trade to trade. Because the length of a foot changed between person to person, measurements were not even consistent between two people, often requiring an average.