How To Convert European Heights To The USA's

With the exception of the United Kingdom, where people still use imperial units on informal occasions, the unit of measuring height is different between the United States (feet) and Europe (meters). This poses major problems to Americans who are not accustomed with the metric system and Europeans who have only heard about customary system units on Hollywood movies. In order to comprehend references on heights from sources on either side of the Atlantic, you must know how to do the conversion from meters to feet and vice versa.

Step 1

Multiply heights in meters by 3.28 to find their approximate equivalent in feet. For example, Mount Everest's elevation is 8,850 meters. To translate into feet, multiply 8,850 by 3.28 and you will get 29,028 feet.

Step 2

Multiply by 0.305 to convert feet to meters. To explain to a European how tall the Empire State Building is, multiply its height in feet (1,454 feet) by 0.305 and you will get 443 meters.

Step 3

Round the results of your multiplications if absolute precision is not your main concern. In great heights, fractions of a meter or a foot don't compromise your operation's accuracy.

Step 1

Convert human height measurements into centimeters and then multiply by 0.4 to convert the height measurement to inches. For example, a height of 1.74 m equals 174 cm. Multiply 174 by 0.4 and you will get 69.6 inches.

Step 2

Divide the result by 12, because 1 foot equals to 12 inches. Ensure the quotient is an integer even if the division is not over; the quotient represents feet and the remainder the inches. On our example, divide 69.6 by 12 and you will get approximately 5 feet and 10 inches.

Step 3

Multiply the feet value of a person's height by 12 and add the remaining inches to fully convert it to inches. Afterward, do the multiplication by 2.5 to find its equivalent in centimeters. A 5'5” woman is 65 inches tall or 65 × 2.5 = 162.5 cm, which is approximately 1.63 m.