DIY length converter
Built for tape-measure work: paste fractions (1 1/4), feet+inches (5'10"), or worded notation (3 ft 6 in) and get clean output in millimetres, centimetres, or metres.
Try "5'10", "3 ft 6 in", "1 1/4", or just "70"
Tape-measure tip: 1/4″ = 6.35 mm, 3/8″ = 9.53 mm, 1/2″ = 12.7 mm, 3/4″ = 19.05 mm, 1″ = 25.4 mm.
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Frequently asked questions
How many millimetres is 1/4 inch?
1/4 inch is exactly 6.35 millimetres. Other common tape-measure fractions: 1/8 inch is 3.175 mm, 3/8 inch is 9.525 mm, 1/2 inch is 12.7 mm, 5/8 inch is 15.875 mm, 3/4 inch is 19.05 mm, and a full inch is 25.4 mm.
How do I convert feet and inches to metres?
Multiply feet by 0.3048 to get metres, or convert to total inches first and multiply by 0.0254. For example, 6 feet is 1.8288 m, 8 feet is 2.4384 m, and 10 feet is 3.048 m. The mixed-unit input on this page also accepts notations like 5'10" or 3 ft 6 in.
How do I convert metres to feet?
Multiply metres by 3.28084 to get feet, then split off whole feet and multiply the remainder by 12 for inches. So 2 metres is 6.56 feet, which is 6 feet 6.7 inches. For a quick mental estimate, multiply metres by 3.3 — close enough for hanging a picture.
How accurate are decimal-to-fractional conversions?
Tape measures use binary fractions (halves, quarters, eighths, sixteenths) which can never exactly represent most decimal values. We display the decimal answer to three decimal places — round to the nearest sixteenth (0.0625) or thirty-second (0.03125) when transferring to a tape measure. For example, 12.7 mm is 1/2 inch exactly, but 13 mm is approximately 1/2 inch (closer to 33/64 if you want to be exact).
What is the difference between a US and UK gallon?
A US gallon is 3.785 litres while a UK (imperial) gallon is 4.546 litres — about 20 percent larger. This page uses US customary units throughout. For UK fluid ounces, pints, and gallons, the conversion factors are different from US conversions. Most modern UK measurements are metric in any case.
How do I read the input formats?
The DIY converter accepts a flexible mix of notations: 5'10" (feet and inches with quote marks), 5'10 (without the closing quote), 5 ft 10 in (worded), 5ft10in (no spaces), or just a number which is interpreted as inches. Fractions work too: 1 1/4, 3/8, 5'10 1/2". Decimal feet (5.5) is interpreted as inches by default — type 5'6" if you mean 5 feet 6 inches.